Water supply and sewage treatment

Hadera Paper is a market leader in the areas of water savings.
Over the last decade, the Company’s engineers carried out extensive activities to achieve water savings by using water saving mechanical contrivances and raising the awareness regarding this issue to enable continuous savings.
During this period, the water consumption per each manufactured ton of paper was decreased by approximately 55%, currently placing Israel at the first place on the global ranking list of paper manufacturing companies. The Company’s continuous activities regarding reuse of treated wastewater will enable a further, substantial decrease in water consumption.

Based on years of experience in reuse of water in manufacturing processes, Company engineers have long become market leaders developing solutions for improving the quality of wastewater and treated wastewater .
The most advanced treatment systems in Israel are installed and operated at the Hadera facilities, comprising of three phases of treatment:
• Pre- treatment by trommels located at the source of wastewater enabling the filtering of solids
• Biological treatment via anaerobic and aerobic devices dissolving organic substances
• Tertiary treatment by sand filters and a purifying system for treated wastewater
 
In light of the superb quality of the treated wastewater produced by these facilities, the Ministry of Environmental Protection has allowed the plant to discharge  treated wastewater to the Hadera River under extremely stringent requirements. Discharging  treated wastewater to the river improves and upgrades significantly the water quality in the river, which is characterized by a high presence of carbon originating from the elevated part of the river.   
A new device for softening treated wastewater following biological treatment is currently being assembled. The softening process is performed via a novel technology based on lime.
The new softening device will enable to reduce significantly the level of hardness  of treated wastewater (the ability to produce fur) in the near future. Thus, this treated wastewater will be eligible for reuse in the packaging paper manufacturing machine currently being built, and will replace potable water.
Hadera Paper opted for performing the softening process by submerging the fur over a bed of fine grains of sand. The softening device applies a process based on the Crystalator method. Crystalator is an innovative technology thus far used only for treating potable water. To the best of the Company’s knowledge, this device has not been applied to treat wastewater anywhere else in the world, certainly not in the paper industries. The benefit of this method lies in the fact that no by-products harm the environment. The only by-product  is grit-shaped limestone grains, which are environmentally friendly and can be used in the construction industry.