Veolia Water Technologies Qatar was contracted by Baladna, Qatar’s leading dairy producer, to upgrade the existing wastewater treatment facility at its cow farm located in Al Khor, north of Doha. Veolia proprietary technologies will allow an increase in the treatment capacity of the plant and enable the treated wastewater to be reused for agricultural irrigation purposes.
With a capacity of up to 24,000 cows and a superficy of 2.4 million m2, Baladna’s cow farm is the biggest cow farm in Qatar and one of the biggest in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. The barn and milk parlor flushing area of the cow farm generates around 6,000 m3/day of wastewater.
As part of the wastewater treatment plant upgrade, Veolia modified and optimized the treatment performance of the existing lagoons and provided a complementary biological process to meet the treated effluent quality necessary for reuse. The treated water can now be reused for irrigation within the farm and, following further treatment by reverse osmosis, to spray and cool the cows during hot summer months.
Mr. Ramez Al-Khayyat, Managing Director of Baladna, expressed his keenness on the partnership with Veolia: “Baladna’s commitment to sustainability is to create a long-lasting difference in Qatar. The holistic approach to reuse treated wastewater is a key development for our company’s sustainable goals, and we are enthusiastic to be at the tip of technological breakthrough for the best interest of our products and consumers.”
An upgrade of the existing lagoon system allowed Veolia to optimize its process performance to meet Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) and Total Suspended Solids (TSS) removal between 80% to 92%.
To further treat the effluent, a two-stage AnoxKaldnes™ Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor (MBBR) process was provided with complete sieve and aeration grid arrangement. The MBBR process uses microorganisms for biological treatment of wastewater and allows for high treatment capacity in a very small footprint.
The effluent is then treated with coagulants and flocculants before tertiary treatment through a two-stage filtration made of Hydrotech™ Discfilters and Drumfilters. These high-quality, swedish-manufactured filters are cost effective, have low energy consumption and an automatic control to optimize capacity. Finally, disinfection is performed using a sodium hypochlorite solution pumped to the new chlorine contact tank.
