Company Overview

SNC-Lavalin is one of the leading engineering and construction companies in the world. It is involved in facilities and operations management, ownership, operating and maintenance of infrastructure. SNC-Lavalin has been active internationally for nearly 40 years, establishing a network over almost every continent. It employs over 15, 000 people in offices across Canada and in 30 other countries, and is currently working in approximately 100 countries.

Environmental Profile

The Corporation is proceeding in the areas of environmental technologies (air and wastewater treatment, site restoration, analysis techniques, removal of metals, treatment of toxic waste and recycling of wastes). Other sectors under development include thermal technologies, and biotechnology. The personnel at SNC Research Corp. have successfully completed several projects involving technological development, evaluation and commercialization, and particularly the scale-up of a reactor for the anaerobic treatment of wastewater, from the laboratory (2 L) to industrial scale (450 m3). We are proceeding with the commercialization of this technology. Recently, this technology has been adapted for the treatment of air in the flexographic industry.

Company Information

Additional Details

Legal Name: SNC Research Corp.

Number of Employees: 7000

Contacts

Products

• A System For The Anaerobic Treatment Of Low Water Soluble Vocs: Bio-voc.

  The process is comprised of an activated carbon absorption column for solvents of low water solubility or high volatility, a buffer tank and the SNC-Lavalin Multiplate Reactor and is as follows. The VOCs are removed from the contaminated air stream by water scrubbing or activated carbon absorption before discharging the clean air into the atmosphere. The water coming from the scrubbing, which contains the VOCs, enters the buffer tank where biochemical reactions, temperature and pH adjustment and the addition of nutrients take place. Low solubility solvents are desorbed from the activated carbon by steam and condensed for either recuperation or treatment in the buffer tank. The water is then sent to the SNC-Lavalin Multiplate anaerobic reactor. Here, the VOCs are converted to biogas (which contains greater than 75% methane) and the liquid effluent which is essentially solvent-free is recycled to the scrubbing unit or buffer tank if an absorption column is used. A small purge is removed which is compensated by the addition of a fresh water make-up. The biogas can be either burned in a flare or used for heating purposes in the plant. For solvents including ethanol, propanol, ethyl acetate, methanol and iso-propanol, results were 94% transfer of solvents from the air to the water by the scrubber, 99% conversion of solvents by the anaerobic reactor and 94% total removal of solvents by the entire treatment system. The advantages of the SNC-Lavalin system include low capital and operating costs, possibility of treating other liquid effluents, potential recuperation of the biogas, gentle technology for the environment, potential recuperation of solvents, air is discharged at ambient temperatures and low quantities of CO2 generated.

• A System For The Anaerobic Treatment Of Water Soluble Vocs: Bio-voc.

  The process is comprised of a water scrubber, a buffer tank and the SNC-Lavalin Multiplate Reactor. The VOCs are removed from the contaminated air stream by water scrubbing before discharging the clean air into the atmosphere. The water coming from the scrubbing, which contains the VOCs, enters the buffer tank where biochemical reactions, temperature and pH adjustment and the addition of nutrients take place. The water is then sent to the SNC-Lavalin Multiplate anaerobic reactor. Here, the VOCs are converted to biogas (which contains greater than 75% methane) and the liquid effluent which is essentially solvent-free is recycled to the scrubbing unit. A small purge is removed which is compensated by the addition of a fresh water make-up. The biogas can be either burned in a flare or used for heating purposes in the plant. The system has been successfully tested on the site of a flexography plant. For solvents including ethanol, propanol, methanol and iso-propanol, typical removal rates of 94% total removal of solvents by the entire treatment system were achieved. Advantages of the SNC-Lavalin system include low capital and operating costs, possibility of treating other liquid effluents, potential recuperation of the biogas, gentle technology for the environment, low quantities of CO2 generated and air is discharged at ambient temperatures.

• Bio-voc

  A system for the treatment of water soluble VOCs from the flexography industry has been developed by SNC Research Corp., a subsidiary of the SNC-LAVALIN Group (Montreal, Canada). The process is comprised of a water scrubber, a buffer tank and the SNC-LAVALIN Multiplate Reactor and is as follows. The VOCs are removed from the contaminated air stream by water scrubbing before discharging the clean air into the atmosphere. The water from the scrubber, which contains the VOCs, enters the buffer tank where biochemical reactions, temperature and pH adjustment and the addition of nutrients take place. The water is then sent to the SNC-LAVALIN Multiplate anaerobic reactor. Here, the VOCs are converted to biogas (which contains greater than 80% methane) and the liquid effluent which is essentially solvent free is recycled to the scrubbing unit. A small purge is removed which is compensated by the addition of a fresh water make-up. The biogas can be either burned in a flare or used for heating purposes.

  A system for the treatment of VOCs of low water solubility from the flexography industry has been developed by SNC Research Corp., a subsidiary of the SNC-LAVALIN Group (Montreal, Canada). The process is comprised of an activated carbon adsorption column, a buffer tank and the SNC-LAVALIN Multiplate Reactor (shown below) and is as follows. The VOCs are removed from the contaminated air stream by activated carbon adsorption before discharging the clean air into the atmosphere. The solvents are desorbed from the activated carbon by steam and condensed for either recuperation or treatment in the buffer tank where biochemical reactions, temperature and pH adjustment and the addition of nutrients take place. The water is then sent to the SNCwLAVALIN Multiplate anaerobic reactor. Here, the VOCs are converted to biogas (which contains greater than 80% methane) and the liquid effluent which is essentially solvent free is recycled to the buffer tank. A small purge is removed which is compensated by the addition of a fresh water make-up. The biogas can be either burned in a flare or used for heating purposes.

• Environmental Products And Services
• Multiplate Reactor

  The multiplate reactor technology was developed by SNC-LAVALIN. In 1991, a full scale unit was constructed to remove BOD and COD at a large dairy plant in Chambord, Quebec (Canada). The reactor is comprised of a shell, plates, parallel feed entrances and lateral gas exits. The reactor works in the following manner:

  The liquid to be treated enters the reactor by paralled entrances. The gas formed during the treatment rises through the biomass and hits the plate. A portion of the gas continues its ascent to another compartment while the rest of the gas leaves the reactor by a gas exit situated under the same plate. The gas that passes through the plate continuously cleans passage points and displaces all points of the biomass bed. This movement prevents formation of dead spots and short-circuiting in the reactor. The reactor has been tested with success at the 450, 000 L scale for the anaerobic treatment of cheese dairy wastewater. It has been pilot tested for treatment of brewery wastewater, deicing agent, potato processing wastewater and organic solvents.

• Snc-lavalin Multiplate Reactor For The Anaerobic Treatment Of Wastewater.

  The process is comprised of a buffer tank and the SNC-Lavalin Multiplate Reactor. The wastewater enters the buffer tank where temperature and pH adjustment and the addition of nutrients take place. The water is then sent to the SNC-Lavalin Multiplate anaerobic reactor. Here, the organics are converted to biogas (which contains greater than 75% methane) and the liquid effluent is discharged. The biogas can be either burned in a flare or used for heating purposes. The reactor has been demonstrated at full scale (450m3) for dairy wastewater and a pilot unit is available for testing.

  Typical results:

  For dairy wastewater, 90% COD removal was achieved for organic loads of up to 45 kg COD/ m3-day. For brewery, potato processing and aircraft deicing wastewaters, results of 90% COD removal rates were typical at organic loads of up to 17 kg COD/m3-day. Advantages of the SNC-Lavalin system include low capital and operating costs, possibility of treating other liquid effluents, potential recuperation of the biogas, gentle technology for the environment, high yields and excellent stability.

NAICS Categories

• 237990 Other Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction
• 541330 Engineering Services

Additional Information