ZERO PLUS - Integral liquid residuals management model for surface tratment industries through

The project’s objective was to define a model for managing liquid wastes created by metal surface treatment industry. This was done through the integrated application of existing Best Available Techniques (BATs), implemented under real-life conditions in a typical electroplating plant. Merging the different BATs resulted in all recoverable materials being separated early on in the treatment process. Once separated, different dedicated treatments were able to be applied to each type of effluent. In this way, the waste streams are able be fully cleaned and treated before the effluent reaches an ‘end-of pipe’ stage. Pre-industrial and industrial scale tests were carried out to assess, calibrate and validate the ZERO PLUS project’s new methodology in seven electroplating processes following the establishment of a baseline of environmental risks and various modification options in order to address weaknesses within the BATs were tested to come up with the optimal model.