The Antwerp Harbour, over the years, accumulated a huge quantity of sediments with the consequent reduction of navigability. Initially these sediments have been removed by dredging and disposed in ponds but, with the time, this method became unsustainable for two reasons:

• there were no more places left to contain the dredged sediment;
• the land in contact with the sediment, often polluted, became saturated with toxic substances and there was the possibility of contaminating the groundwater too.

After a detailed analysis of different technologies (including, among the others, centrifuges, belt presses) the selection was for the filterpresses. The drivers for this decision were the high flexibility of the equipment as well as the optimal total cost of ownership. The client selected Diemme^® Filtration as a partner basing on several criteria:

• Reliability of the Company and the Product.
• Achievement of the Performance Guarantee.
• Manufacturing capability able to meet the project timetable.
• Compliance with the project criteria.
• Flexible and cooperative attitude.

This state of the art installation with 12 filtration lines with GHT.2000.P19 filterpresses is in operation for over a decade and processing up to 600.000 t/y of dry solids.