Feralco is a leading supplier of high performance chemicals for water treatment and the pulp and paper industry. The Group's headquarters are located in Sweden and we have production facilities in several European countries.
Our goal is to supply both traditional and innovative products to ensure optimum control in a wide variety of applications including the treatment of drinking water, wastewater and process water, and in the processing of paper.
Water Treatment
In the western world we are lucky to have abundant water sources of good quality for our production of potable water. However, these sources get contaminated by today's production in society. Potable water becomes sewage after being used by people – sewage that has to be treated in order not to cause eutrophication of lakes, rivers and seas. Feralco has the products you need in order to guarantee your customers safe water.
Feralco manufactures and sells a number of products for the treatment of water. Our inorganic products for potable water treatment work by stabilising colloidal suspensions found in surface or groundwater by neutralising zeta potentials. The choice of coagulant is often dependent on the type of raw water.
Our products marketed under the PLUSPAC trade name offer enhanced performance of up to 50% compared to similar commercially available products. Successful field applications include waste process waters from the food and beverage, tanning, textiles, paint and chemical industries.
Examples of Feralco products for water treatment are aluminium sulphate, PASS (polyaluminium silica sulphate), PLUSPAC (polyaluminium chloride), PLUSPAS (polyaluminium sulphate), Lapofloc PAC, ferric chloride, sodium aluminate and sodium hydroxide.
Other areas of product application include:
Potable Water
Drinking water quality standards have been improved appreciably in the last decade and inorganic coagulants based on aluminium or iron sulphates or chlorides are usually needed to meet specifications.
Feralco products work by stabilising colloidal suspensions found in surface or groundwater by neutralising zeta potentials. The choice of coagulant is often dependent on the type of raw water and Feralco supplies different products for optimal results.
Sewage Treatment
Damage to the environment caused by e.g. eutrophication of waters has forced legislation to become even stricter than before also for sewage treatment. The demand for phosphorous removal with Scandinavia as forerunner in the 1970’s was a breakthrough for coagulants in this application. Chemical precipitation is, however, favourable also for the removal of organic matter and suspended solids.
The Feralco products especially apt for sewage treatment are marketed under the PLUSPAC trade name and offer enhanced performance of up to 50% compared to similar commercially available products.
Sludge Treatment
When treating water with coagulants impurities in the water precipitate and sludge is formed. After settling the sludge still contains a high content of water and therefore has to be dewatered before being disposed of or used for agricultural purposes.
Within the Feralco product range several products can be applied for the best dewatering results. For the treatment and recycling of sludge Feralco has developed the Aqua Reci process and the REAL process, which offer considerable advantages compared to other commercially available methods.
Pulp and Paper Processing
Cationic coagulants and polymers are being used extensively in the processing of paper. Feralco paper chemicals offer significant advantages for wet end operations. The highly efficient products help to optimise and control production and management of neutral sizing, retention, drainage and anionic trash.
The combination of Feralco inorganic polymers with high molecular weight organic polymers provides superior performance at lower cost than dual organic polymer and microparticle systems. Interfering substances such as colloidal and dissolved anionic materials from pulp, recycled fibre and coated broke can be controlled effectively at the wet end which can improve machine operations, reduce down time and provide substantial cost savings. Other benefits include reduced load on internal DAF and wastewater treatment plant, improvements in paper quality (reduced spots and holes and improved sheet formation) and reduced deposits in fan pumps, storage tanks and feed lines.
Feralco products available for paper processing or treatment of process water include:
- Aluminium sulphate (iron-free)
- PLUSPAC
- Zircasol
- Alconal
- PASS
- Sulphuric acid
- Sodium hydroxide
Sludge Conditioning
Inorganic cationic polymers with high cationic charge have synergistic effects when combined with high molecular weight cationic, anionic or non-ionic polyacrylamides. More efficient dewatering efficiencies are achievable which can dramatically reduce process costs.
Sludge Recycling
Feralco has developed two different processes for recovery of sludge from drinking water production and sewage treatment: the Aqua Reci process and the REAL process.
The Aqua Reci Process
Sludge from drinking water production or treatment of sewage contains a number of valuable components – far too valuable just to be disposed of or to be used for agricultural purposes without recycling. In the Aqua Reci process the organic substance of the sludge is decomposed into carbon dioxide and water with subsequent recycling of phosphorus and coagulants. The Aqua Reci process thus offers a total solution for disposal of sludge from both drinking water production and sewage treatment.
The Aqua Reci process has been developed by combining Feralco's know-how with the Aqua Critox process from Swedish company Chematur Engineering AB. The process uses supercritical water oxidation to decompose organic material in e.g. sludge from water treatment.
The REAL Process
In order to safeguard high drinking water quality, water works worldwide are treating billions of cubic meters of surface water using chemical precipitation. The most common chemicals used in the precipitation process are salts containing trivalent Al such as aluminium sulphate and polyaluminium chloride. In the treatment process sludge is formed and removed. The sludge contains suspended solids and organic substances like humus as well as precipitated aluminium hydroxide.
Today the sludge is generally either pumped back to the recipient or dewatered and disposed of. The first method causes a negative effect on the environment and the latter is often costly.
The REAL process makes it possible to separate the aluminium from the impurities in the sludge and thus reuse it as coagulant in the purification process. The remainder is a concentrate of the separated impurities, which represent less than 10% of the original sludge quantity.
