Budel is situated in the southeast of the Netherlands, near the Belgian border.
Zinc smelting activities have been undertaken at the site since 1892, however since 1973, Budel has used an electrolytic zinc production process. The site has continued to improve its processes and to address historical contamination over the years, transforming the site into a leading practice facility with minimal environmental impact.
In 1993 Budel committed to a program of ultimately ceasing the production of jarosite and related by-product gypsum, and to closing the existing on-site jarosite and gypsum ponds. Under agreement with Dutch authorities, Budel has invested heavily in projects to ensure jarosite and gypsum material stored on-site is appropriately contained in the ponds area. Pond capping is almost complete, with the final gypsum pond capping to be completed over the summer of 2008.
The long history of industrial activity at the site resulted in a legacy of on-site soil and groundwater contamination. Significant on-site soil remediation programs have been undertaken, particularly the removal of historical ‘zinc ashes’ which had been used as fill material around the site. Removal of remaining contaminated site materials, including zinc ashes and redundant buildings, will be completed during 2008 as part of the final gypsum pond capping project.
In 1992, a Geohydrological Containment System (GCS) was installed to control groundwater contami¬nation. This system consists of 12 pumping wells located at the northern and eastern border of the Budel site, which covers an area of approximately 200 hectares. The wells extract the same volume of water that flows into the area from the south-west, creating a hydrological barrier and ensuring that contaminated groundwater is contained in the area. Extracted groundwater is treated via an innovative technology using sulphate-reducing bacteria. The recovered metals can then be returned to the process and the treated wastewater is discharged into a local stream.
Several changes were made to the process during the 1990’s, including the application of inte¬grated techniques to significantly reduce sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions from the zinc smelting process. A change to the site feed materials meant further changes to the process and since 2000 the site has produced virtually no solid waste.
Budel is also a world class zinc smelting operation in terms of energy efficiency. In 2000 Budel participated in the Dutch Benchmarking Covenant for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. This involved benchmarking our energy efficiency against other zinc smelters around the world, an exercise which determined Budel as currently being at ‘best practice’ in the industry.
