PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
KCM is the largest producer of lead and zinc in Bulgaria and the leading producer of non-ferrous and precious metals in Southeastern Europe and the Black Sea region. KCM’s integrated manufacturing plant is located near the Chaya River,a protected Natura 2000 site, near Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Wastewater from KCM’s operations is discharged into the Chaya River through a 4 km canal, but with current technology this can still lead to cadmium pollution in the river that risks negatively impacting the ecological status of the Natura 2000 site. Valuable resources are also being lost as hydroxide cakes, enriched with metals like zinc, cadmium and lead are currently landfilled instead of repurposed. The plant must also keep up with increasingly stringent regulatory requirements.
OBJECTIVES
The LIFE RECAD project aims to demonstrate a sustainable wastewater treatment method for industries with high pollution footprints. The primary objective is to reduce the release of substances of significant concern, specifically cadmium, into the Chaya River freshwater environment.
The specific objectives of the RECAD project are to:
- construct a Transitional Wastewater Treatment Facility (TWTF), which will leverage a multi-stage treatment process
- enhance wastewater processing efficiency by purifying water at the juncture of minimal flow and maximum concentration of monitored elements before they enter the central wastewater treatment plant (CWWTP)
- demonstrate the efficacy of the advanced multi-stage treatment cycle that was developed during the project’s preparatory phase
- achieve around a 4-fold reduction in cadmium concentrations entering the Chaya River
- introduce sustainable sludge management as an alternative to the currently practiced approach that sends the sludge produced during wastewater treatment to landfill
- utilise a patented technique for extracting valuable metals (zinc, cadmium, lead) from wastewaters, enabling their subsequent valorisation as secondary raw materials
- implement systematic monitoring to ensure a consistent tracking of the new treatment facility’s performance, effluent composition, and the health of the water source
- employ reliable and tested measurement tools and methodologies to verify the intervention’s effectiveness
- prioritise systematic efforts to bolster the potential for replicating and transferring the project solution, ensuring its adaptability for use in metallurgical plants and other industries such as foundries, mining and metal-containing waste recycling
RESULTS
The expected results of the RECAD project are:
- a transition to a 2-tiered water treatment process that achieves the following heavy metal concentration targets in the effluent streams: Pb <0.2 mg/l; Cd <0.01 mg/l; Zn <1.0 mg/l; As <0.1 mg/l, effective from 2028
- to allow resource circularity by recycling heavy metals from the hydroxide cake, which not only prevents environmental degradation but also reincorporates valuable resources back into the production cycle with an expected annual diversion of 720 tonnes of zinc and cadmium-containing-waste to production processes resulting in the valorisation of 96 tonnes of pure zinc and 45 tonnes of cadmium
- an improved quality of life for residents who rely on the river for agricultural and recreational purposes, through lower risk of water contamination and healthier ecosystems
- the identification of additional measures for protecting the Natura 2000 site through collaboration with NGOs and the development of a joint strategy with key stakeholders to mitigate cadmium contamination in food sources
