Tecnoidea Impianti: A Closed-Cycle Water Depuration System Made in Italy

Since day one, the company Tecnoidea Impianti, an acronym for Tecnologia Impianti di Depurazione Acqua, has focused on the design and production of plants for water purification and the treatment of sludge.

Nowadays, the Italian-based company stands out due to over 30 years of know-how, world-wide applied innovative solutions and steady creativity. Nevertheless, GLOBAL RECYCLING Magazine wanted to know how everything has started and asked Tecnoidea Impianti some questions about the past, present, and future.

According to your company, Tecnoidea Impianti has installed over 3,000 plants throughout the world, which can recover more than two million six hundred cubic meters of water per day and treat as well as dispose of sludge produced by various processing phases. But how has everything started back in 1981 when the company was set up?

Back then, the Internet was just a nerd thing, environmental awareness was yet to be discovered, and the word “globalization” wasn’t even in the dictionary.

Tecnoidea Impianti was established in 1981 as a sales company operating in the marble and granite industry, and only in the next decade, we decided to start manufacturing. No computers, no 3D modeling, no video calls with overseas customers, only the passion of two partners, an office on four wheels and the idea that we could have recycled and re-used the big volumes of water used in industrial wet processes. We took our time for every major step of the company growth, one plant at a time, and today we are still selling spares for machines that have been working stress-free for more than 30 years.

Everything changed in terms of industrial design, worldwide trades, and ecology. The technology had a lightspeed progression, the green economy came to life, and our company evolved accordingly.

But there is one thing that remained the same for 35 years: the central role of the customer in our projects. We truly believe that relationships with customers led Tecnoidea Impianti where it is now, and we are proud of it.

What is the essential mission of Tecnoidea Impianti regarding water purification and treatment of sludge generated by industrial processes?

In terms of process, we are focused on a closed water depuration cycle, where we continuously re-introduce clean, usable water into our customers’ production line. Along the two stages of our process – water clarification and sludge dehydration – we aim to recover and re-use up to 95 percent of the liquid. Water clarification is obtained thanks to the addition of a polyelectrolyte, highly biodegradable in less than 30 days. The last stage of the process – the dehydration of the remaining thickened sludge – is operated by our recessed chamber filter-press. The only waste of the process is a dry, solid, environmentally safe mud cake.

In which way does Tecnoida Impianti distinguish itself from other companies active in the sector of water and sludge treatment?

In two ways: quality and care of the customer. We never traded the quality of our equipment for any “just go to market” shortcut and we are not going to. The process of engineering, developing, and manufacturing of our machines must follow quality standards and procedures subject to continuous reviews. The know-how loop between us, our customers, and our suppliers ensures that our next installation will be somehow better than the last one.

The care of the customer is the fuel of this process: Tecnoidea sides its clients from the very first contact until the end of life of its machines. We do not just sell WTPs, we help and support our clients to enhance their businesses, collaborating with them to study, develop and apply the best, most innovative, and most practical solutions for each specific job.

Each plant design is tailored on single customer requirements, specifications, and limitations; on-site installation comes with qualified supervision or a complete turn-key package; full training to on-site personnel is provided. Remote control, assistance, and tuning is included in the package, customized spare-parts plans, fast and effective deliveries world-wide, on-site assistance … we “stay” with our customers until bedtime.

What kind of environmental policy does the company pursue?

Applying an environmental policy that includes all the guidelines required by ISO or equivalent certifications is not enough – not anymore. Rational use of resources, reduction of emissions, monitoring, and continuous improvement have been widely discussed already. But our planet has no time to wait for human procedures’ implementation. Our planet needs fast-effective actions to reduce or mitigate the impact of our unsustainable lifestyle. So, here is a sneak peek of Tecnoidea Impianti “environmental action-plan”:

1) Selection of km0 suppliers, good for the environment and the Made in Italy.
2) Zero paper for internal communications, even though we have to shout to each other sometimes.

Also, as mentioned at the beginning, we clean and re-cycle almost 3M cubes of water a day, all around the world. Our next goal, to be scored before the end of this year, is the total ban of single-use plastic in and around our factories. This means that also some of our suppliers will be required to modify their packaging.

Your company offers a wide range of products from single block static vertical settling tanks to automatic filter presses. Can you give an overview of the sectors in which customers can apply your products?

Our system is modular and can include a long list of pre- and post-treatments that makes it suitable for a wide and increasing range of industries: from quarries and mines where a wet washing process takes place to the world of stone cutting/processing. We recently started operations at the Brenner Base Tunnel, providing the water treatment plant that will take care of the excavated material in Austria; more and more countries are requiring a proper water treatment for beton-wash. We can deal with soil-washing wastes as well as road-wash.

Wherever there is an industrial process generating a non-organic liquid waste with suspended particles, we are happy to get dirty.

According to Tecnoidea Impianti, at the moment, the company is one of the leading companies in the sector at world level in terms of global quality and applied technologies. But how does the future look like for your company?

Tecnoidea Impianti never stopped investing in its pro­ducts. Dealing with a world-wide market means dealing with very different needs, different standards, and different laws. How quickly we adapt and react to local updates makes the difference between pioneers and followers. Nowadays, the world is well aware that water is a limited, thus valuable resource, and every initiative that encourages a more rational use should be pursued. More and more countries are introducing or updating their environmental regulations in this direction, Tecnoidea Impianti must be ready to turn limitations into opportunities, one plant at a time.

www.tecnoidea.it

(GR 32019, Page 13-Advertorial, Photo: Tecnoidea Impianti S.r.l.)