A memorandum of understanding to transfer treated wastewater from Tabriz Wastewater Treatment Plant to Tabriz Petrochemical Company was signed between water companies of East Azarbaijan Province and the petrochemical company.
The project to transfer recycled water to TPCO will help reduce the mounting pressure on drinking water resources in Tabriz and sustain water transfer to the petrochemical complex in the provincial capital, the National Petrochemical Company news website Nipna reported.
Work on water supply and transfer of effluent from Tabriz Wastewater Treatment Plant to the petrochemical company has been contracted to the East Azarbaijan Regional Water Company and East Azarbaijan Water and Wastewater Company.
The Tabriz plant now uses water from the Zarrineh River that rises in the Zagros Mountains in Kurdistan Province passes through West Azarbaijan Province and flows into the famous Lake Urmia.
When the project is complete the petrochemical facility will be cut off from the river and only use treated wastewater. Based on the MoU, five million cubic meters per year of effluent from the Tabriz Water Treatment Plant will be sold to the petrochemical company.
Located in East Azarbaijan in the northwest, TPCO annually produces 840,000 tons of goods, namely raw polymers, polyethylene, polystyrene and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS).
Almost 40% of the plant's output is sold domestically and the rest is exported to clients in Asia and Europe. It is built on 380 hectares and its main feedstock and raw materials include naphtha, LPG, mineral oil and other chemicals provided by Tabriz and Tehran refineries as well as petrochemical companies in south Iran.
Replacing water with treated wastewater is among measures taken by the company to do its fair share in protecting the environment and reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.
Earlier this year, the company launched a project to eliminate volatile organic compounds emissions from the wastewater treatment unit in the complex.
VOC emissions are considered a serious environmental threat in petrochemical industries. Other environmental projects of the company include complete recirculation of wastewater by treatment and reusing 110 cubic meters of water per hour.
The company has also manufactured a regenerative thermal oxidizer system to collect and dispose emissions from its ABS unit.
There is also a project underway at the Wastewater Treatment Plant in Tabriz to increase its treatment capacity.
With the launch of the project, the capacity of the plant will increase from the current 130 cubic meters per day to 207,000 cm/d, a large part of which will be diverted to Lake Urmia.
Upon the completion of the project, Lake Urmia will receive 125 million cubic meters of treated wastewater a year from the plant.
An estimated 60 million cubic meters of reclaimed wastewater enters Urmia Lake per year now, part of which is from treatment plants in Naqadeh, Urmia, Mahabad, Miandoab, Salmas and Boukan in the northwestern province.
Currently, seven wastewater processing units are in varying stages of construction in the province and after completion will significantly raise the effluent processing capacity.
Tabriz has a population of 1.6 million and produces huge amounts of wastewater, a part of which is fed into Urmia Lake. Close to 70% of its urban areas are connected to the wastewater network.
