From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, this is the Real Economy Report. Adhesive technologies specialist Henkel South Africa has set a benchmark in sustainability for the global Henkel brand by replacing its old chemical treatment plant with an environment-friendly option. Samantha Moolman has the story.

Samantha Moolman:
After 15 years of treating more than 1 000 kℓ of wastewater every month using traditional wastewater treatment chemicals, Henkel South Africa made a call in 2011 to re-engineer its effluent process with a particular technology in mind. Henkel adhesive technologies operations GM Manie Botha elaborates.

Henkel adhesive technologies operations GM Manie Botha:
Part of the process was to look at the old traditional, chemical treatment of effluent, but we took our thinking hats off, broadened our minds and had a look at different technologies that could do this.

I have had previous experience with ultra-filtration [technology] and thought it might work in this case, so we contacted the supplier of this technology, Memcon, and they were willing to partake in this design process.

In 18 months we did various tests and took multiple samples to try and see if this technology could actually do this effluent clean up. We knew it hadn’t been done in South Africa so far – as far as we know – so we had to test it well.

After 18 months we were very happy with the results and decided on this technology and we implemented it.

Samantha Moolman:
The new effluent plant, which has been running since March, has significantly improved the chemical composition of Henkel’s wastewater, which is now up to 1 000 times better than the municipality’s standard for treated effluent.

This means that Henkel has reached its global 2030 sustainability target for waste in less than a year. Botha elaborates.

Manie Botha:
With the effluent plant, the way we’ve constructed it, we’ve already achieved the target of reducing the contaminants that we let out into the public effluent system. We are hundreds of times better than the standard local authority measures and, by the time that we start reusing this water, utilising reverse osmosis, we also achieve the target of reducing the volume of water needed for Henkel products by 100%.

Samantha Moolman:
Treating Engineering News to a tour of Henkel’s facilities, Botha was able to show off the R2-million effluent plant, which is more compact than the previous one and features 54 ceramic filters contained in two steel modules.

Manie Botha:
Everything below this new roof structure is the new effluent plant and everything outside of that is what the old effluent plant used to look like. You can see it’s a lot smaller than what it was.

This plant has been designed to handle five cubic metres of effluent per hour, which is the same capacity we had in the old plant.

The old plant was a traditional chemical treatment plant for effluent, while this new plant is based on ultra-filtration technology using ceramic filters.

It is run by a [programmable logic] control unit, so it is 100% automated. It only needs someone to look in on it every now and then to make sure that the whole process is running well. Apart from that, it runs by itself.

Samantha Moolman:
With a long-term goal to becoming a zero-effluent plant, Henkel plans to attach a reverse-osmosis plant to the back end of the new effluent plant, with the aim of recycling the company’s wastewater for use in the manufacturing process. Botha explains.

Manie Botha:
In terms of the quality of the water that comes out of this plant at the moment, it is far below the municipal standards that we have to adhere to. By next year this time we will have added a reverse-osmosis plant at the back end, which will improve the quality to such a nature that we can reuse it in production. So it will become part of the product. It will be chemically pure.

Shannon de Ryhove:
Other news making headlines this week: Unilever breaks ground on R500-million Midrand ice-cream factory; Kumba and ArcelorMittal sign an ‘holistic’ iron-ore pricing deal following years of dispute; and the Investment Bill imposes no new obligations on investors.

Unilever South Africa has broken ground on an envisaged R500-million ice-cream manufacturing facility, in Midrand, to drive the fast-moving consumer goods company’s local capacity expansion strategy and exploit what chairperson Peter Cowan describes as a swelling consumer market.

Unilever chairperson Peter Cowan

Steel producer ArcelorMittal South Africa and iron-ore miner Kumba inked an “holistic” deal recently aimed at resolving a long-running dispute between the two JSE-listed companies, while also potentially meeting the government’s increasingly vociferous calls for arrangements that facilitate higher levels of resource beneficiation.

AMSA CEO Nonkululeko Nyembezi-Heita

The contentious Promotion and Protection of Investment Bill of 2013, which aims to “update and modernise” South Africa’s existing legal framework in respect of foreign and domestic investment, achieves a balance between the rights and obligations of investors and of government, and will impose no new obligations on investors, says Trade and Industry Minister Dr Rob Davies.

Trade and Industry Minister Dr Rob Davies

That’s Creamer Media’s Real Economy Report. Join us again next week for more news and insight into South Africa’s real economy.