COMPLETED JOBS
+
1
COUNTRIES
1
CLIENTS
+
1
More than twenty-five years ago, SERECO was born, and I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to all those who have been a fundamental part of its growth. Thank you for the care and enthusiasm you have put into every step of this journey.
It is time to thank our clients for trusting us, and our suppliers for their availability, excellent service, and, above all, for their patience on so many occasions.
I also want to pay tribute to those who took their first steps in this project with passion and dedication. To those who remain with us, and to those who, unfortunately, are no longer with us, with special mention to Antonio García Orcajo and Eduardo Pardo (RIP).
Finally, my deepest gratitude to the SERECO team. Thanks to their commitment and constant effort, we continue to advance as a more efficient, innovative company, committed to the well-being of our society.
Arsenio de la Vega Martinez
President
It was a hydrocarbon storage facility that occupied 57,000 m² and was capable of storing 108,900 m³. It stopped being operational and the company decided to dismantle it and proceed with environmental recovery.
An affectation by hydrocarbons was detected in soils and groundwater, with maximum concentrations of 32,000 mg/kg in soils and 30 mg/l in waters.
To decontaminate the land, the soil washing technique was chosen, for which two plants were installed.
112,500 m³ were excavated, making control samples every 250 m³. A total of 71,700 tons of soil were treated and a total of 7,700 tons of sludge were filtered. The average yield obtained in the process was 700 Tm/day.
The characterization and subsequent decontamination of a piece of land was carried out through injections of surfactants, use of biostimulant agents and execution of biopiles.
The contamination was caused by an accidental spill of HTF thermal oil, affecting and contaminating a 24,000 m² surface within a solar thermal plant.
In the first place, the investigation and environmental characterization of the site was carried out to determine the scope of said condition through two survey campaigns. Analyzes were carried out on soils, waters and measurement of specific parameters for subsequent remediation work.
Elevated levels of TPH, Biphenyl and Biphenyl Oxide were detected, above the Generic Reference Levels, which implied the performance of a Quantitative Risk Analysis, resulting in the existence of an unacceptable risk to human health and the establishment of objective values. quality.
The work carried out for its restoration was reflected in a Comprehensive Remediation Project. The works consisted of the construction of a hydraulic barrier, drainage ditches, the injection of surfactants and biostimulants, as well as the implantation and exploitation of a static biopile.
The hydraulic barrier, designed to contain the movement of contaminants along the ground and isolate the affected area, was built using waterproofed trenches downstream for a total length of 84 meters, to which a drainage pipe and two reception arches.
With regard to surfactants and biostimulants, they were injected in different quantities and solutions through boreholes and injection trenches, thus facilitating the bacterial fauna present in the soil to be able to degrade the contaminant without altering or digging the soil. land.
This injection process was carried out in alternate campaigns, verifying, through control probes, the effectiveness of the technique and the contamination correction coefficient.
Part of the contaminated soil required to be treated by means of a static biopile that, with a volume of more than 300 cubic meters, was equipped with a series of slotted collectors and steam collectors accompanied by an air injection, suction and filtering treatment plant with activated carbon that allowed the treatment and monitoring of the process.
This work has been the largest decontamination that has been carried out to date in Spain and one of the most important in the world due to the great variety and complexity of the waste treated (organic and organochlorine, heavy metals -especially Mercury- and radionuclides ).
The industrial activity carried out on the site for more than 120 years caused the accumulation of highly contaminated sludge in the river bed adjacent to the industrial complex, reaching the figure of more than 800,000 m3 of contaminated submerged sludge covering an area of 20 It has a depth of more than 8 meters coming to emerge above the sheet of water. The movement of pollutants downstream during the annual flooding of the river led to the decision of the administrations to deal with their removal and decontamination.
The work has consisted of the extraction of sludge by dredging and a subsequent granulometric separation and dewatering in order to have a dry residue and treat each resulting fraction in the most appropriate way. The water resulting from dredging has been managed in a treatment plant, while the dried sludge, depending on the degree and characteristics of its contamination, has been subjected to three different decontamination technologies: desorption, oxidation and stabilization.
The works have been carried out in two phases, beginning the works of the first phase in 2012 and finishing the second and last phase in 2020.
More than 150 professionals (engineers, biologists, chemists, geologists, specialized personnel…) have participated in the work and SERECO has participated as a subcontractor in the two phases of the work, being the one with the greatest weight in terms of percentage of project developed.
SERECO has been in charge of the design and engineering of the Classification and Dehydration Plant, its assembly, commissioning and subsequent operation for more than 50 months. The plant was designed to admit a dredging rate of 1,725 m3/h and 333 tons of dry matter (TMS) every hour.
The operation was carried out through 3 identical treatment lines to make the plant as versatile as possible, replicating the following processes so that each granulometric fraction was properly treated and dried.
The works were carried out in 3 shifts covering 24 hours of daily operation and carrying out maintenance and repair work on weekends. This made it possible to achieve a mechanical availability of 96.9% of the plant, being, on the one hand, the installation with the greatest risk and complexity of the work and, in turn, the most reliable with an accumulated production at the end of the work of almost 1,000,000 tons of dry matter treated.
In its operation it is worth highlighting the work carried out by more than 30 people including Plant Manager, Shift Managers, Panelists, Specialist Operators, Laboratory Technician, Quality and Environment, Safety…
SERECO also participated in the auxiliary treatment plants (stabilization, oxidation…) contributing its experience as an operator, designing and implementing modifications and improvements to achieve its correct operation given the existing difficulties due to the type of material to be treated. In addition, he carried out the start-up of both plants and took care of their operation during discontinuous periods of time.
The DESTER project was launched with the aim of researching and developing an effective technique that would allow the concentration of radiological elements from land contaminated with low-intensity isotopes and materials obtained from the dismantling (demolition) of nuclear power plants and other radiological facilities, with in order to restore the maximum percentage of contaminated land and minimize the amount of radioactive waste that must be confined in a nuclear waste repository.
The project was supported by the CDTI (Center for Industrial Technological Development) and was co-financed within the framework of the first call for R&D projects by the Financial Mechanism of the European Economic Area (EEA-GRANTS) within the science program and technology in environment and climate change.
After a long research process in the laboratory, the project has taken shape with the construction of a treatment plant that has been successfully used in the dismantling of a nuclear power plant. It consists of five well differentiated stages: feeding, separation and granulometric classification, gravel washing, sand washing and sludge dewatering, and has a treatment capacity of 10 Tm/h.
SERECO, at the request of the Basque Government, installed mobile plants to fluidify, centrifuge and manage the disposal of the fuel oil spilled by the Prestige oil tanker, which seriously polluted the northern coast of Spain.
For months, Basque, Cantabrian and Asturian fishermen were collecting the fuel that floated in the sea to prevent it from reaching the coasts and beaches. The collected fuel was transported in the same ships to the port of Bilbao where we had three mobile plants installed. More than 10,000 tons of fuel were recovered and sent for energy recovery.
Subsequently, the Xunta de Galicia, through the public company SOGARISA, awarded us the separation work by means of centrifugation of more than 70,000 tons that were stored in its facilities. Two complete centrifugation lines were installed in order to separate the collected fuel into phases and prepare a product that could be recovered energetically.
In 2004 the ship M/V ULLA sank in the port of Iskenderum, on the Turkish coast, laden with ash from thermal power plants. The cargo was recovered and transferred to Barcelona by the Obbo-Amorito to be treated in the port of that city.
SERECO was in charge of setting up and operating the treatment device in the port with six filtration plants.
In just 11 days, all the extraction and dehydration works of the 4,700 Tm of combustion ashes from a thermal plant contained in the wineries were carried out.
SERECO was in charge of the extraction by means of an ecological dredge of the sedimented sludge in the Ondarroa marina, as well as the subsequent drying of the sediments for transport and management in an authorized place.
The accumulation of sediments produced a permanent decrease in the draft within the port, leaving pontoons stranded at times of spring tides at low tide.
The versatility of the ecological dredger made it possible to clean the bottom of the port without having to dismantle the pontoons, avoiding inconvenience to users and with exquisite care so as not to harm the flora and fauna of the Ondarroa estuary itself. The works were carried out over 2 months.
SERECO was contracted for the dredging and subsequent remediation of the Miño estuary (Galicia), whose shellfish bank was inactive due to clay spills from the clearing of a nearby urbanization.
The work area was 12,500 m² extracting a 15 cm depth of mud on a bench, that is, approximately 1,875 m³ of mud. The maximum draft that existed in the area was 3.40 m, so the dredging was done with our ecological dredge. After the extraction, we proceeded to the granulometric separation of the extracted material by means of sand traps, to later dry the sludge and the finest particles by means of centrifugation.
Once the sand had been washed, it was returned to the bank itself, the dry fraction was managed at an authorized landfill and the water, once treated and its aptitude for discharge verified, was returned to the estuary.
The port of Suances has a sheltered interior area of approximately 10,000 m², between fishing use and sports-recreational use. The local coastal and fluvial sedimentary dynamics translates into a continuous deposition inside the sediment basin, which implies a continuous decrease in the depth in the basin, making it necessary to carry out periodic dredging to maintain adequate safety conditions for the vessels in the basin. dock. The characterization carried out on the sediments shows that it is a waste classified as non-hazardous.
The UTE Dragado Suances formed by Sereco and Sato carried out maintenance dredging with the extraction of a volume of 16,974 m³ of sandy mud (silt and clay mixed with sand and plant remains) with an average dredging thickness of approximately 1.50 m.
The works consisted of the mechanical extraction of the sludge, its drying by means of a combination of drying beds and a filter press, and the transfer and management of the already dried sludge to the non-hazardous waste landfill.
For the extraction, a 500 tm crane was used, equipped with a 3 m³ clamshell grab and watertight tubs that poured the sludge into 2 drying areas located in the same port, duly fenced and sealed around the perimeter, creating two watertight enclosures.
To optimize the drying of the sludge, turning tasks were combined with the implementation of a filtration plant capable of treating all the leachates produced and drying the finer fractions, thus minimizing the final residue and avoiding external management of liquid effluents. After each turning and drying cycle, the perfectly manageable material by mechanical means, was transferred to a non-hazardous waste landfill.
The dredging work was controlled by means of periodic bathymetry and the installation of anti-turbidity barriers at the mouth of the port. Once the original depth of the basin was reached, the construction facilities were removed and the initial situation of the site was restored by replacing the pavement and lighting in the areas where the drying rooms were located.
SERECO carried out the cleaning of the effluent area of the Lázaro Cárdenas Refinery in Minatitlán (Mexico), which had collapsed due to the accumulation of oily sludge. Due to the large amount of accumulated sludge and its explosive conditions, the work was carried out using the remote-controlled dredging and external centrifugation methodology with the main objective of not introducing personnel into the area and minimizing the waste to be managed by dehydrating the sludge. with a centrifugal separator, returning the clean water to the pond to maintain adequate dredging conditions.
Under these special conditions, 18,357 m³ of oily sludge were extracted. For the extraction, an ATEX dredger was used remotely controlled by a specialist technician and equipped with a lobe pump and a vacuum bell with sludge suction capacity at a depth of 8 m.
The extracted sludge was subjected to a physical-chemical flocculation process with polyelectrolyte specifically selected for these sludge after tests carried out in the laboratory and later centrifuged.
In order for the treatment to be carried out continuously and to avoid unnecessary stops, the equipment was dimensioned to obtain a stable treatment capacity of 50 m³/h by installing a 2-phase decanter with a nominal capacity of 90 m³/h. In said equipment, the solid phase (dehydrated oily sludge) was separated from the liquid phase (water), managing the first in a landfill and returning the second to the pond.
A total of 3,084 tons of dried sludge were obtained (80% reduction in waste compared to other techniques) and all the works were carried out in optimal safety and hygiene conditions within the refinery.
Of all the bentonite sludge dewatering works carried out by SERECO -which have been many- we have chosen for this section those carried out at the Girona station and associated works on the TAV-M-B France section of the Sarria de Ter -Sant Julia de Ramis section and the tunnels urban TAV-M-B France.
The construction of the AVE station in Girona is a work in which we participated together with Terrabauer and it is one of the largest (28.7 hectares) and in which the most resources were used.
For the desiccation of the generated bentonite sludge, four filtration plants equipped with 1300×1300 mm filters were used. that had to be reinforced with a plant of 1500×1500 mm. to reach an average drying rate of 1,200 m³/day.
The logistical complexity and the demand in production, quality and safety that a work of this magnitude entails, is what makes it special for us.
The sludge carried by the current settles along the riverbed and accumulates in backwaters and other places where the speed of the water decreases. These sludge deposits have to be removed from the river as they can cause difficulties in the operation of some hydraulic infrastructures such as dams, dams, water intakes for irrigation or for human consumption, etc.
SERECO has removed the sedimented sludge from the Santa María de Aguayo dam in Cantabria.
The works consisted of extracting some 400 m3 of accumulated sludge upstream of the dam, in the vicinity of the pumping system. For this task, a remote-controlled ecological dredge equipped with an anti-turbidity system and with an extraction capacity of 80 m3/hour was used.
The extracted sludge was subjected to a continuous process of dewatering by filtration with a mobile unit equipped with a filter press installed on a semi-trailer.
This extraction and dewatering system is ideal for this type of infrastructure as it allows selective dredging of the most affected areas without the need to lower the water level in the dam, and minimizes the volume of waste to be transported to its final destination.
SERECO regularly collaborates with organizations dedicated to water management.
In this case, the work focused on the complete cleaning of two sludge decanters with a yield of 600 and 1,200 m3/h, in a Drinking Water Treatment Station (ETAP) in Cantabria (Spain).
In order to extract the sludge, it was necessary to remove each settling unit from service. The works began by emptying the remaining water until it reached the level of the settled sludge. From there, the sludge was extracted to a storage bucket, opening the purges of the decanters. At the same time, and to complete the cleaning of the equipment, and fluidize and drag the most mineralized sludge, the bottom and walls of the sludge were sprayed with pressurized water.
The entire volume of extracted sludge (approximately 800 m3) and water supplied during the cleaning of the decanters was sent to a SERECO mobile filtration facility, where approximately 75% of the water transferred in the process was recovered, and 25 Remaining % solids in the form of “cake” with an approximate dryness of 50%.
