Zero waste solution

The stainless steel industry uses strong acids in the process of metal pickling, which can be dangerous and hazardous to the general health. Up to now there has been no satisfactory solution for the handling of these spent acids and metal waste.

During the pickling operations stainless steel in a form of long or flat products is immerged in various mixtures of acids that remove needless and impure surface of oxides created during the prior production processes. Conventional technologies installed after the process allow only for recovery of acids that did not react. Remaining waste from the process contains several hazardous and harmful constituents and is currently usually neutralized and disposed. Conventional technologies only recover a small amount of the consumed acids, resulting in large amounts of waste to be land filled and neutralized or metals discharged in water (nitrates, chromium, Nickel,…). Although more advanced solutions are available today, they require relatively high investments; high maintenance costs and are not able to valorize the metal fractions in its optimized form. Due to the costs of disposal and hazardousness, remaining waste is considered to be a significant environmental and economical issue.

The ReOrbis solution is capable of recovering all the spent acids. The purified cleaned acids will be available for re-usage. The metals are separated and valorized in optimized form. With the ReOrbis solution the generated pickling sludges and solutions are transformed into valuables and useful products. The process can completely eliminate the need for land filling and waste disposal.