
Recovery of recycled
aggregates
From light-fraction pre-treatment to tertiary treatment with activated carbon, Tecnoidea designs and builds complete water and sludge treatment plants for road-sweeping waste recovery, backed by 45 years of experience with complex waste streams.
Road-sweeping waste is particularly complex to treat. It is a heterogeneous mix of sand, gravel and traces of asphalt, contaminated by urban litter, floating organic fractions and chemical contaminants associated with road traffic and maintenance (hydrocarbons, mineral oils, brake dust and de-icing salts).
Road-sweeping water treatment must address three process challenges simultaneously: the physical separation of light fractions (litter, organics); the physicochemical treatment of the water (clariflocculation, chemical dosing) and sludge dewatering; and the removal of residual road contaminants (tertiary treatment with sand filters and activated carbon).

The water and sludge treatment process in road-sweeping aggregate-recovery plants
The water from washing the road-sweeping material is laden with light fractions — microplastics, leaves and other organic matter, polystyrene and cigarette butts — which tend to accumulate at the surface during settling, interfering with sludge-floc settling and potentially causing problems for the clean-water lift pumps. Installing a static curved screen upstream of the water-treatment section lets the water pass through the screen, while organic matter and other light fractions are separated from the flow, protecting the downstream machinery.

An agitated reaction tank provides the contact time required for reagent mixing: coagulants, antifoam agents to control foaming caused by road surfactants, and pH correctors where required. Multiple dosing units can operate in parallel to manage the different chemical treatments.

The conditioned water enters the static clarifier, where clariflocculation takes place. The LEM sludge-level monitoring system automates the discharge of the thickened sludge to the collection tank. From there it is pumped to the filter press, which compresses it into spadeable solid cakes, while the clarified water is returned to the closed-loop washing plant. Where the feed material is particularly clay-rich, chemical conditioning with milk of lime may be needed to improve the filterability of the sludge.

The wash water may contain hydrocarbons, oils and other road contaminants that are not fully removed by clarification. To manage this contamination — and to treat excess water before discharge — a tertiary treatment section may be required: sand filters to remove the residual suspended solids, followed by activated carbon filters for the adsorption of dissolved organic contaminants. If the plant includes lime dosing, the tertiary section may also include CO₂ neutralisation to correct the pH before discharge.

From the complete plant with a tertiary section to individual machines for revamping existing plants.
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Discover the productSince 1981 we have treated aggregate wash water and sludge. We operate an in-house analysis laboratory and provide chemical dosing units, LEM and SADF (automatic flocculant dosing) automation systems, and a complete range of products for road-sweeping wash-water and sludge treatment.
Road-sweeping and Soil Washing plants share a similar process architecture: static curved screen, reaction tank, clariflocculation, chemical conditioning, dewatering and tertiary treatment. The sizing changes, not the logic. This means our engineering team designs water and sludge treatment plants for road-sweeping material using the same process-engineering approach applied to environmental remediation projects.
A road-sweeping plant operates with materials that vary by season and by collection area, under regulatory constraints on water discharge. Our service is structured to support operational continuity: spare parts, scheduled maintenance and remote support.


























