(Nomination for 2013 AUREA Award): Carlsberg Serbia - Supercompost - Innovative use of waste

Carlsberg Serbia is the first company in Serbia to get a license to distribute and sell supercompost, a fertilizer and soil amendment that comes as a by-product of wastewater treatment at the brewery in Celarevo.

Registration of the sludge from the wastewater treatment system as a soil amendment is a result of the company’s aspirations to reduce the quantity of waste for transport to landfills and, thus, achieve a high level of environmental protection. Analyses have shown that the sludge from the wastewater treatment system accounts for the largest share (760 tonnes per year) of the potentially unused waste. This fertilizer and soil amendment is a by-product of anaerobic-aerobic treatment of wastewater.

In entering this sludge into the register of soil amendments, the company relied on European directives as the legal framework in Serbia allows no such waste to be registered as a new product.

The registration was preceded by thorough analyses of this type of waste, and the Soil Institute in Belgrade recommended that the sludge can be used as an organic soil amendment, that is, organic fertilizer for crops, vegetables, fruits and grapevine.

During 2012, the project was finalized and the sludge was entered into the register of soil amendments and fertilizers, with Carlsberg Srbija registered as its distributor. Thanks to these measures, the amount of waste for transport to landfills has been cut in half.

The primary goal of the company was to use this project to dispose of waste in an ecologically acceptable manner. Besides, there is also a financial benefit. Aside from no longer having to pay either for the disposal of this sludge at landfills or for its transport, the company also profits from supercompost sales, so that its savings resulting from the registration of supercompost as a soil amendment and fertilizer should amount to approximately EUR 25,000 a year.

Other brewers within the Carlsberg group have followed the example of Carlsberg Serbia, and the subsidiary in Russia has already started implementing a project modeled after the one implemented by the brewery in Serbia.

INNOVATION

In an effort to improve the waste management process, Carlsberg Serbia has decided to reduce the quantity of waste for transport to landfills. Analyses of deposited waste have shown that the sludge from the wastewater treatment system at the Celarevo brewery, which processes all wastewater from the brewery, accounts for as much as 50 percent of that waste.

The Soil Institute in Belgrade has conducted a thorough analysis of this type of waste and made a recommendation based on its results that the sludge be registered as a soil amendment because (article 18, paragraph 3 of the Law on Plant Nutrition Products, articles 17 and 40 of the Regulations on the terms of classification and determination of the quality of plant nutrition products, deviation of the content of nutrients, minimum and maximum values of the allowed deviation of the content of nutrients, the content of declaration and the way of labeling the plant nutrition products) it meets all criteria for the safe use on different types of land whose structure it affects and improves.

The absence of legislation in Serbia allowing for a waste of this kind to be registered as a new product was the main obstacle to the registration of this sludge as a soil amendment.

Since the issue of sewage sludge registration as a new product remains unresolved in Serbia, Carslberg Serbia relied on the requirements referred to in EU directives (Council Directive of 12 June 1986 on the protection of the environment, and in particular of the soil, when sewage sluge is used in agriculture (86/278/EEC)) as supercompost fully complies with these requirements.

Before submitting documentation to the Ministry of Agriculture, Carlsberg first had to get the opinion of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, which gave the green light to Carlsberg to use sludge in agriculture.

After additional sludge characterization analyses were performed and government institutions gave their support to the project, the Plant Protection Directorate of the Republic of Serbia issued a decision to Carlsberg in early 2012 facilitating the entry of the company’s plant nutrition product, supercompost, into the register of plant nutrition products and soil amendments. In mid-July Carlsberg also received a decision on its entry into the register of soil amendment and fertilizer distributors and exporters. It took a year and a half to complete the entire registration process. The project was finished in September 2012, when the company officially ceased to dispose of the waste from the wastewater treatment system at landfills and started selling it.

This is the first project of the kind in Serbia, and supercompost is an example how a by-product previously treated as waste can be successfully and adequately disposed of and used as a new product.

Carlsberg Serbia is the first company within the Carslberg group to implement one such project, and since this practice has proved to be very successful, other members of the Carslberg group have followed the example of Carslberg Serbia. It is important to mention that a similar approach can be applied to many other industries as well.

Supercompost Production Process

Sewage sludge - supercompost is produced in the process of anaerobic-aerobic treatment of wastewater. Upon exiting the anaerobic ANUBIXTM-B reactor and aeration pools, sludge mixture goes to a subsequent precipitator where it is separated into water and sludge. A portion of such active sludge goes back to the denitrification pool, while a certain quantity of sludge is daily pumped into a device for the mechanical separation of water, which consists of a mechanical drum thickener and a band filter press.

Sludge is first brought to a condition for mechanical thickening and water separation by adding a polymeric flocculant (polyelectrolite). After that, sludge is sent to a high-pressure band filter press with the aim of keeping the dry matter content at minimum 30%. Sewage sludge – supercompost then drops from the band filter press into a container for storing it.

SOCIAL UTILITY

The aim of the registration of sludge from the wastewater processing system at the brewery in Celarevo as a soil amendment is to reduce the amount of waste for transport to landfills and, thus, achieve a high level of environmental protection.

Analyses have shown that the sludge from the wastewater treatment system accounts for the largest share of the potentially unused waste at the Carlsberg company. This fertilizer and soil amendment is a by-product of anaerobic-aerobic treatment of wastewater.

Every year, 760 tonnes of compost were transported from the wastewater treatment facility at the Carlsberg Serbia brewery in Celarevo to landfills, which is 50 percent of the total waste disposed of at landfills, so that the registration of supercompost as a soil amendment has cut the amount of waste disposed of at landfills in half.

Besides, in combination with other soil amendments and fertilizers, this product will contribute to the improvement of quality of agricultural land. Supercompost can be used for crops, vegetables, fruits and grapevine. It is used as an additional fertilizer on a variety of soils, especially on poor degraded areas, sandy soils, heavy clayey soils, whose structure it affects and improves. It can be used both in the autumn and in the period before the sowing.

Supercompost is an example how a by-product previously treated as waste can be successfully and adequately disposed of and used as a new product, and a similar approach can be applied to many other industries as well.

An additional objective of the Carlsberg Serbia company is to set example for other companies on how they can successfully take care of the environment while also making substantial profits at the same time.

FINANCIAL POTENTIAL

Carlsberg has registered the sludge from the wastewater treatment system as a soil amendment with the aim of reducing the quantity of waste for transport to landfills and, thus, achieve a high level of environmental protection, but there is also a financial benefit. Aside from no longer having to pay either for the disposal of this sludge at landfills or for its transport, the company also profits from supercompost sales.

Thanks to the registration of supercompost as a soil amendment, waste transportation and disposal costs will be decreased by EUR 20,500. Supercompost is now offered at a low price because the company’s core activity is beer production and not the sale of soil amendments and fertilizers, so that soil amendment sales revenues are expected to reach approximately EUR 4,000 a year.

Total savings resulting from the registration of supercompost as a soil amendment and fertilizer should amount to approximately EUR 25,000 a year.

As the project implemented by Carlsberg Serbia has proved to very successful, other brewers within the Carlsberg group have followed its example, and some of them, including the subsidiary in Russia, have already started implementing a project modeled after the one implemented by the brewery in Serbia.

If the innovative use of waste by the Carlsberg Serbia company is your favorite for the investment of the year 2012, you can vote for this candidate at the official website - Aurea.