Servyeco and Porcelanosa, an eco-friendly partnership

Servyeco has built a wastewater treatment plant for Porcelanosa’s new large-size tile factory.

Spanish tile producer Porcelanosa Group has commissioned Servyeco to supply a water treatment plant for its new large-format porcelain tile production facility.

The plant designed and built by Servyeco consists of two separate lines for treating wastewater flows originating from the glazing and polishing processes. The system as a whole uses the latest technology to minimise energy consumption and ensure the maximum sustainability, allowing the Porcelanosa Group to recover and reuse 100% of its wastewater. This in turn helps reduce water consumption and minimise waste. Communication protocols are also in place to facilitate remote monitoring and allow for complete 24/7 plant supervision. The next step will be to adopt predictive maintenance solutions capable of detecting potential failures before they occur.

Servyeco is a technology-based company whose core business is the development, production, and supply of innovative and sustainable products necessary for water treatment and purification processes. Its areas of activity include wastewater, drinking water and industrial water. It operates in both the public and private sectors, ensuring human health and safety on the one hand and environmental protection and the circular economy on the other. Servyeco comprises a manufacturing plant, a warehouse, an accredited laboratory and an engineering and maintenance department located in a 7,000 square metre facility in Alcora. The company supplies more than 10,000 tons of products per year, both nationally and internationally. The company posted 35% year-on-year revenue growth in 2022 and is developing new R&D projects under European LIFE programmes.

Eco-innovative chemicals

One of the many solutions developed by Servyeco for wastewater treatment in the ceramic production process is the new BEWAT line of natural coagulants and flocculants. With their environmentally friendly formulations, these products enable companies to produce sustainably, reliably and with competitive costs, advantages that are further enhanced by the personalised consulting services provided by Servyeco’s engineering department.

Wastewater has different quality characteristics depending on the stage of the ceramic production process it originates from. Water used for washing raw materials grinding and glaze production equipment has a high content of suspended solids, soluble anions and traces of organic matter, whereas washing water from slip spray dryers contains exclusively suspended solids. Wastewater originating from the finishing lines (grinding, squaring, cutting and polishing) also has a high content of suspended solids with fine particle sizes and soluble anions.

The technology developed by Servyeco allows 100% of this water to be recovered and reused in keeping with a circular economy model. For example, water recovered from glaze preparation lines or from machinery washing operations can be reused as cooling water or as spray dryer feedwater. Water recovered from finishing processes can be reused for other purposes such as recovering ceramic sludge as a raw material for reintroduction into spray dryers, reducing the use of dispersants (BEWAT products do not add salts to water so conductivity values remain stable).

The novelty of the Servyeco technology lies in the combination of lamellar settling systems with the use of the eco-friendly BEWAT natural coagulants. This intelligent system allows for monitoring and control operations in real time from any location.