Tailor-made course on Wastewater Treatment

Background

World Water Academy (WWA), together with Darling Ingredients, developed a fully customized course on wastewater treatment. Thanks to the course, this client from the food industry now possesses the necessary knowledge and skills to meet global demands and local standards in each country.

With over 260 locations worldwide, Darling Ingredients is the largest publicly traded company that converts edible by-products and food waste into sustainable products. This makes them a leading producer of renewable energy. Darling Ingredients reuses approximately 15% of the waste streams from the global meat industry. They process this into value-added products, such as green energy, renewable diesel, collagen, fertilizers, animal proteins, meals, and ingredients for animal feed.

Darling Ingredients aims to improve the know-how and performance of their own wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) worldwide. The company processes residual streams, which generate wastewater. The WWTP purifies the water before it is discharged into surface water. The untreated wastewater has a high level of pollution, particularly high nitrogen levels. The process operators are responsible for ensuring the smooth running of all process steps. This requires a professional approach to uniform procedures, operation, maintenance, and troubleshooting. The ‘Tailor-made course on Wastewater Treatment’ provided training in these areas.

Programme

The target audience for the course included environmental managers, wastewater managers, and operators from various Darling Ingredients locations worldwide. The course placed special emphasis on process control, biological (aerobic/anaerobic) treatment, operational steps, procedures, nitrification and denitrification, sludge settling/dewatering, and filamentous bacteria.

Teaching methods

The course employed a range of teaching methods, including theoretical lessons and practical exercises. These were designed to ensure participants could effectively apply their knowledge to real-world situations. The focus was on interactive learning, where process control, biological treatment (aerobic/anaerobic), and operational procedures were taught in both classroom settings and hands-on workshops. Participants engaged in activities like troubleshooting and process optimization to strengthen their understanding of key wastewater treatment concepts.

Result

Participants greatly appreciated the practical content of the training program. They were also particularly positive about the interaction with their fellow participants and the trainers. They enjoyed being able to ask questions and share knowledge with professionals from the same work environment. The practical applicability of the provided course materials was received with enthusiasm.

Client’s Feedback

The evaluation results of the course were generally very positive. On a scale of 1 to 5, World Water Academy (WWA) scored an impressive 4.9 for content, 4.9 for relevance, and a perfect 5.0 for practical applicability. Both participants and the client were very enthusiastic about the outcome of this training program.