Ekopak

Prayon's site in Puurs-Sint-Amands needs an average of 255,000 m³ of water a year, much of it as demineralised water for steam production, for washing and re-extraction in phosphoric acid production, and for dilutions. All of it came from tap water. In 2020 Ekopak installed a containerised plant next to the sea canal: ultrafiltration (1x80 m³/h) and reverse osmosis (3x20 m³/h) turn canal water into process water, and the wastewater is treated again before it returns to surface water. Ekopak handles follow-up and maintenance, so Prayon's operators can stay focused on steam production.

EOC Group makes adhesives, binders, coatings and surfactants and uses more than 100,000 m³ of water a year at Oudenaarde. It had moved from city water to groundwater in 2010, and in 2021 its installation had to be renewed and expanded. Ekopak built a plant that de-irons the groundwater and converts it, through nanofiltration and reverse osmosis, into centrally softened process water for cooling, cleaning and sanitary use, and demineralised water for water-based products, steam and the lab. It replaced the individual salt softeners, and Ekopak monitors and maintains the installation.

d'Arta uses about 300,000 m³ of water a year in Ardooie to wash, peel, steam and blanch vegetables and to feed its evaporative condensers. Its main source is a pond with a high iron content. Ekopak installed a first treatment plant in 2016 and, after pilot tests with its mobile R&D lab in 2022, expanded it with dNF membranes from NX Filtration (2x20 m³/h) that de-iron the water ahead of reverse osmosis, so the RO units foul less and need fewer cleaning cycles. A Blue Deal project supported by the Flemish Environment Agency now brings rainwater overflow from neighbouring companies to d'Arta's buffer basins. Ekopak also serves d'Arta's sites in England, Italy and Portugal.

Vynova uses demineralised water in Tessenderlo for its electrolysis process and for steam production, and its existing plant had become too small after several expansions of the site. Ekopak designed and built a new plant based on membrane technology, an 8 million euro investment by Vynova supported by the VLAIO ecology premium. The plant no longer consumes groundwater, saving each year the equivalent of the tap water used by more than 1,000 households. It also needs fewer chemicals, which reduces the site's waste streams and improves wastewater quality.

AGC Mol, part of the AGC flat glass group, ran an outdated in-house water treatment that took a lot of time and resources. Ekopak replaced it with a WaaS® installation that it finances, operates and maintains, while AGC pays only for the water it uses. Four modular containers with three tank containers placed on top fit the site's limited space. Water from the Albert Canal is pre-filtered for the cooling circuits, and part of it goes through ultrafiltration, double-pass reverse osmosis and, if needed, mixed-bed ion exchange to produce ultrapure water. The installation has spare capacity, so maintenance never interrupts supply.

Top Bronnen, a Belgian family company that has produced mineral water and soft drinks for more than 100 years, needed more capacity and wanted to lose as little water as possible. Ekopak built its first closed circuit reverse osmosis (CCRO) system, working with DuPont, which holds the patent, to treat the mineral water used for lemonades. A second RO unit softens the source water without salt to protect installations during hot cleaning, and an automatic CIP system cleans the membranes in one click. Both units are redundant, so one can take over if the other stops.