September 23, 2024 (Veolia release) — Veolia has made a significant contribution to Suzano, the world's largest pulp producer, by delivering advanced industrial and demineralized water and effluent treatment facilities for the company's new plant in Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. This plant, set to be the world's largest single-line eucalyptus pulp production plant, is a testament to our commitment to the industry. Operations began in the summer of 2024, producing an estimated 2.55 million tons of eucalyptus pulp annually and expanding Suzano's current production capacity by more than 20%.
Water treatment is vital to producing pulp and paper products because the manufacturing process requires high volumes of high-quality water and addresses environmental regulations for tough-to-treat effluents, including suspended solids, trace heavy metals, and organic compounds. These processes are essential for companies like Suzano, which focus on producing pulp sustainably. This is important for Brazil's economy and ensures a steady supply of pulp for products like toilet paper, sanitary pads, diapers, medicine, books, and other everyday items around the world. According to the Brazilian Tree Industry, the country made its largest sale ever, in both volume and revenue, to China in 2023: 8.9 million metric tons of pulp for $3.8 billion.
The new industrial and boiler feed water treatment facilities Veolia commissioned for Suzano's next-generation plant are a testament to our commitment to reliability and efficiency. They utilize leading technologies for industrial process water and potable water production, including Densator clarifiers, SP Pak filters, ZeeWeed ultrafiltration, and reverse osmosis. With a treatment capacity of 9,550 cubic meters per hour of industrial water and 80 cubic meters per hour of potable water, the facility will ensure reliable water production for the largest pulp production plant worldwide.
"Brazil continues to increase its capacity as a global pulp exporter, and to meet that demand, this new plant needs the most robust, state-of-the-art technology," said Mauro Cruz, Senior Vice President for Latin America at Veolia Water Technologies & Solutions. "Our experts deeply understand the unique needs of the pulp and paper industry and developed solutions that enable our partners at Suzano to achieve depollution and regeneration of vital resources tied to Veolia's GreenUP strategic plan and ecological objectives.
"Additionally, Veolia also enhanced the plant's effluent treatment by implementing its Biofilm Activated Sludge (BAS) process, a robust technological solution that combines the moving bed bioreactor (MBBR) process with activated sludge, followed by sludge dewatering belt presses. The treatment of sludge generated through dewatering presses is also a key component of the Veolia solution. This cutting-edge technology has been a differentiator in new pulp and paper plants, offering high reliability, lower civil construction costs, and proven efficiency, ensuring compliance with local environmental regulations.
"The advanced effluent treatment process we’ve implemented, when used efficiently, can prevent water pollution equivalent to the organic load generated by a municipality of 2 million inhabitants", explains Cruz. "This level of treatment ensures the local environment is safeguarded and preserves our vital water resources."
"Veolia's ability to adapt the application of their innovative technologies to meet our high demands and customized needs, along with their ability to bring robust and reliable partners to the project, was one of the company's differentials in this project," says Mauricio Miranda, Engineering Director at Suzano.
The technologies used in Suzano's new plant include the most sustainable innovations and processes in water treatment. The delivery of these water and industrial effluent treatment facilities further demonstrates Veolia's commitment to providing an ecological transformation for the pulp and paper industry, ensuring that companies like Suzano can operate efficiently while minimizing environmental impact and enabling the regeneration of existing and alternative water sources for the communities around its operations.
