Built in 1989, Chemagis’ main production plant is located in the Ramat Hovav Industrial zone in the Negev, some 13 kilometers from the nearest town. Its desert location presents complex environmental challenges which Chemagis addresses through a special department of 10 engineers and operators dedicated to monitoring and lowering the plant’s waste emissions.

 

 

Wastewater Treatment

 

With no water reservoirs, lakes or rivers linking it to the sea, Ramat Hovav presents unique wastewater treatment challenges. Chemagis, along with other plants in the area, used to channel its chemical waste to a central treatment plant (WWTP) operated by the local authorities. This worked well during the first few years, but due to the lack of capacity and variable quality of wastewater, the disposal of effluents eventually created environmental problems.

Chemagis subsequently began studying ways to independently treat its waste while minimizing toxic levels. These efforts led to Chemagis’ designing and building one of the first Membrane Bio Reactor (MBR) plants. Launched in 2003, this facility, which uses membrane technology adopted from Canada, is among the most advanced in the world today. The MBR helped to decrease the total cost of wastewater treatment in the central WWTP and achieved significant reductions in biochemical oxygen (BO) and chemical oxygen demand (COD).

 

In 2005, the authorities closed down the central WWTP and requested that each company begin treating its own wastewater in a locally operated bioreactor. As a result of this development, which also entailed more stringent quality standards, Chemagis upgraded its existing MBR, adding a decanter centrifuge to improve sludge-dewatering. The company also implemented a comprehensive separation and purification methodology that reduces wastage during the various manufacturing processes, throughout the production cycle.

 

In 2007, Chemagis introduced a new biological purification mechanism that further reduces waste levels to conform to current European standards. The Ramat Hovav plant’s current effluents are characterized by low BOD (< 20 ppm), COD and TSS (<2 ppm).

 

 

Gas Emissions

 

Chemagis is committed to decreasing the amount of gases released into the desert air. In 1998, the company joined an agreement between the Ministry for Environmental Protection and the Association of Israeli Industrialists to reduce the emission of volatile organic compounds (VOC), sulphur oxide (SOx), nitrous oxide (NOx) and soot particles from industrial facilities. Chemagis has reached the goals set by the agreement concerning SOx, NOx and soot particles and is in the process of improving the control of VOC emissions through a new project. The goal of this initiative, which involves a new generation of air treatment equipment and more efficient heat exchangers, is to capture most VOCs before they reach the scrubbers, further decrease their emission, and allow solvents used in production to be recycled.

 

Chemagis is now in the process of setting up a central catalyzing facility to treat all of the plant’s emissions. Designed and constructed in cooperation with the German company Bayer, the facility will be fully operational towards the end of 2007.

 

 

Energy

 

Chemagis has conducted extensive research into methods of substituting energy demanding processes, such as distillation, with membrane separation technology. Significant reduction of pollutants emitted during steam generation has been achieved by replacing some of the heavy oil with used solvents (i.e. toluene, isopropanol and methanol). By burning these solvents, expenditures on heavy fuel oil have been reduced by 25-30%, while decreasing air pollutants.

 

In addition, chilling water capacity has been expanded by introducing absorption chillers, further reducing the company’s consumption of energy.

 

 

Future Goals

 

In accordance with its policy to mitigate its impact on the environment and in anticipation of future environmental requirements, over the next three years, Chemagis is focusing on the establishment and maintenance of a valid EHS (environment, health and safety) management system, fully integrated with that of its parent company, Perrigo.