BIOLOGICAL and CHEMICAL TREATMENT SYSTEMS
In addition to its research, projecting and consultancy services on wastewater treatment facilities and equipments, BALMAK METAL is establishing turnkey integrated chemical and biological treatment facilities and provides permanent solutions against wastewater treatment problems.
Treatment Facility: They are the units where foreign substances in the wastewater causing its pollution are removed by using various methods (physical, chemical, biological).
Treatment Sludge: It is the sludge obtained after applying physical, chemical and biological treatment operations on the wastewater.

1. Physical Treatment: Systems that are comprised of grills, screens, grit classifiers and floating material classifiers as well as balancing, settlement and flotation basins are called the physical treatment systems.
a. Grills: They are the systems used for purposes like preventing the damages that may be given to the pumps, pipes and equipments by rough substances in the water; reducing the load transferred to the other treatment sections or removing the floating rough substances from water.
b. Screens: Screens are used for holding especially the materials with fiber contents as well as the suspending materials in wastewater.
c. Grit Classifiers: They are wastewater treatment system units used for purposes like removing the grits and gravels from the waste water in order to prevent the wear that may occur in the pumps or similar equipments in wastewater treatment facility as well as the clogging occurrences in settlement basins.
d. Floating Material Classifiers: They are used for removing the materials like oil, grease, solvent, etc floating on the surface of the waste water due to their lower densities.
e. Balancing (Stabilization) Basins: They are the basins used for homogenizing the composition in waste water, preventing damages that may occur in cases of sudden loads and arranging the wastewater flow rates.
f. Settlement Tank and Basin: It is the treatment system that removes the solid materials in wastewater having higher densities through a settlement procedure based on the gravitational effect. The objective in settling is to obtain a treated water as well as a sludge with a concentration that will allow it to be processed easily.
g. Secondary Settlement Tank: It allows the separation of solid substances obtained after biological and chemical treatment operations from water through a settlement procedure based on the gravitational effect.
h. Flotation: It is a process enabling us to collect and scrape the liquid and solid substances having lower densities than water on the surface.

2. Chemical Treatment: It is a system enabling us to remove the pollutants as solved in water that have not been removed after prior physical treatment operations, by making use of chemical methods (by adding coagulants).
a. Chemical Settlement: It is the process of removing suspending solid substances that could not be removed at the physical treatment systems, by concentrating and settling them with the help of chemical materials.
3. Biological Settlement: It is the process of removing the organic-based solid materials existing in waste water by decomposing them through microorganisms.
4. Conventional Treatment: It is a treatment system that is the combination of physical and chemical treatment systems.
5. Advanced Treatment: It is a treatment system applied for increasing the water quality after biological and chemical treatments and removing some pollutant materials that are impossible to remove through other methods like nitrogen and phosphorus (active carbon, electro-dialysis, etc.)
Municipal solid wastes: They are the types of waste that are generated at residences, commercial locations and offices as well as the market areas, parks, gardens and streets; and collected by municipal authorities (combinations of used food, textile, plastic, leather, wood, metal, glass, ash, etc.).
Sludge Rehabilitation Methods: Methods that are applied in the treatment of sludge generated after physical, chemical and biological treatments of waste water for the purposes of easier transportation and removal by decreasing their water content. Such operations may be summarized as follows.
a. Concentration by Settlement: It is the process of concentrating the sludge received from waste water treatment facilities through its settlement in a settlement tank.
b. Flotation (Concentration by Floating): It is used in the concentration of biological sludge (e.g. active sludge and sludge made in the form of pellets through chemical methods) and is based on the principle of separating liquid and solid contents. Solid substances are made floating through microscopic gas bubbles and the floating layer is then scraped from the water layer underneath.
c. Centrifuge: It is the process of reducing the water content in the sludge by making use of the centrifugal force.
d. Pressurized or Vacuum Filter: It is the process of reducing the water content in the sludge by passing it through a filter using pressure or vacuum.
e. Chemical Discharge: It is the process of removing the water content by using chemical materials.
f. Thermal Rehabilitation: It is the process of oxidizing the organic-based substances in the sludge and reducing the water content by thermal methods.
g. Sludge Dehydration Beds: Sludge dehydrations beds are comprised of sand beds incorporating drainage installations underneath for leaking water. The sludge getting dehydrated to the desired level on such beds is then removed by scraping methods together with a certain amount of sand.

Environmental activities: They are all kinds of environmental activities performed for the purposes of preventing and reducing the environmental pollution and protecting the environment (projecting, establishing and operating activities regarding the supply networks and treatment facilities, rehabilitation studies, consultancy services on all kinds of environmental issues, environmental assessment studies, etc.).

Environmental employment: It is the name given to the personnel employed in environment activities. They may also be involved in other activities besides the environmental affairs.
Environment protection expenditures: They are the expenditures made especially and as directly related to the reduction, prevention and removal of the environmental pollution caused by production processes or consumption of goods and services that have been produced. Costs of administration, monitoring and performance are also included in these with regard to the public sector.
Collection of wastes: It is the process of delivering wastes that have been collected in front of residence and office buildings by waste collection vehicles at regular frequencies.
Transportation of wastes: It is the process of delivering wastes in special vehicles with closed containers in a way not to pollute the environment with regard to the factors like appearance, odor, dust, leakage, etc.

Disposal of wastes: It is the process of annihilating the wastes collected from residence and office buildings in a way not to damage the societal and environmental health.
Pickling: It is the process of removing the covering layer (stone, sand, etc) on a material.

Deep sea discharge: It is the process of transferring the wastes along coasts to the bottom surfaces of seas at farther distances through pipes and diffusers for the purpose of diluting the water and making use of the natural treatment processes at receiving environments having the necessary treatment capacities determined through engineering studies.

Discharge: It is the process of discharging the waste water, either treated or not, directly or indirectly to a receiving environment (river/creek, lake, etc.) (with the exception of drainage water feedbacks leaked into the ground on the sides or through suitable engineering structures) or to the underground destinations in a systematic way.

Permission to Discharge: It is the permission of discharging all kinds of domestic or industrial waste water types that may be given by Metropolitan Municipalities (within the Metropolitan Municipality borders) or by the highest administrative authority (outside the Metropolitan Municipality borders) in the direction of resolutions and comments to be made by local environment committees (such permissions regarding the discharge of wastes to destinations where the receiving water environments have already been excessively polluted are given upon the assessments by the Ministry of Environment).

dBA: It is the unit of sound evaluation where medium and high frequencies to which the human ear is most sensitive are especially emphasized. dBA unit that used mostly in noise reduction or control is related to the subjective evaluation of sound intensity.

Permission for Emission: It is the permission to direct the air pollutants that may be emitted from a facility to the atmosphere as a result of its burning, synthesis, decomposition, vaporization or similar processes regarding fuels and similar materials as well as accumulation, separation and transportation of such materials, to be given by the Ministry of Health or other authorities equipped with such authority.

Industrial waste water: It covers all kinds of waste water, process water, boiler water and cooling water discharges originated from operating and washing activities of industrial organizations and organized industrial zones.

Industrial solid waste: It covers the solid wastes that are generated during production activities besides the products that may be evaluated in production or in any other ways possible; or, be sold or disposed of in the end of such activities.
Domestic water: It is the amount of water consumed in domestic and industrial locations for the purpose of meeting the human requirements during their normal daily activities (water used in refectories, lavatories, etc.).
Domestic waste water: It represents the waste water generated during normal daily human activities.

Domestic solid waste: It covers the food wastes that have not been infected and kitchen wastes like fruit, vegetable, etc. remains.

Septic tanks: They are cavities made in the underground for the purpose of collecting the waste water as coated to prevent leakages. Such tanks are discharged by using sewage trucks when filled up.

Recovering and/or recycling wastes: It is the process of recovering paper, plastic, glass, etc. materials existing within the content of solid wastes that are of reusable characteristics and bringing them in the economy, either by reprocessing them or not.

Drinking and usage water network: It is a piped supply network that is used for distribution of water to be used in the normal daily human activities like drinking, bathing, washing, cleaning, etc.
Sewage network: It is a network that is comprised of interconnected pipes and ducts and used for collecting and removing the waste water and transferring it to the destinations where it is discharged or treated.

Solid waste disposal facilities
1. Regular storage facility: Regular storage method incorporates the activities of spreading of wastes to a carefully selected and prepared area in a systematic way and covering them on a daily basis after they have been compressed. Regular storage technique requires careful handling of leakage waters, rainwater and garbage gases.

2. Burning: It is the method of burning the wastes in specially built incineration chambers. The main objectives in incineration operation are stabilization of wastes in a way not to disturb the environment and reducing their volumes to reasonable levels.

3. Composting: It is the process of converting the 40-60% portion of wastes that can be decomposed biologically (fermentable portion) to a stable product. Compost, on the other hand, represents a material having the properties of rehabilitating the soil quality that is obtained by decomposition of organic-based solid wastes in environments with/without oxygen.
Short-term Limit Value (STLV): It is a value subject to comparisons with results of measurements, in compliance with the Regulation on Protection of Air Quality, when maximum daily average values or statistical ones are brought together and sorted according to numerical values; and such measurement values must not exceed 95% of this value.

Process: It is a method and sequence of inter-related operations applied for processing and producing materials (e.g. production process of sulphuric acid is comprised of converting the sulfur to SO2, oxidizing it then to SO3 and then reacting with water in the end to give the sulphuric acid).

Process water: It is the amount of water used for processing materials during the production activities as well as cleaning activities afterwards.

Make-up boiling water: It is the amount of water that is added to the boiling water (make-up) due to losses occurred in its use for heating and vaporization purposes during the processes circulating throughout a closed system in general.

Make-up cooling water: It is the amount of water that is added to the cooling water (make-up) due to losses occurred in its use for cooling purposes during the processes circulating throughout a closed system in general.

Hazardous Wastes: They include the explosive and flammable liquids as well as solid wastes that are not included in the class of explosives but are easily flammable during the conditions of transportation or may contribute to that process due to frictional causes; solids and solid wastes that are intended too burn due to internal reasons; substances or wastes tending to generate inflammable gases in cases of contact with water, oxidizing substances or wastes, organic peroxides, toxic substances or wastes, infectious substances, corrosive substances, substances or wastes generating toxic gases when contacted with air and water, eco-toxic substances or wastes, and the materials that may generate another material having the same characteristics as one of the above mentioned substances or wastes.

Tuvenan: It is the unprocessed ore that is obtained in combination with stone, soil, etc. during the preparation excavations conducted in mines on or under the ground level.
Long-term Limit Value (LTLV): It is a value mentioned in the Regulation on Protection of Air Quality requiring measurement values not to exceed the arithmetic average of all the measurement results.

Reused water: It is the amount of water that is re-used after it has been used before in the process or any other phase of production with/without treatment. Continuously circulating boiling and cooling water is not included in this.