Our Pharmaceutical Solutions
Waste reduction, reuse and recycling are the main topics shaping sustainable best practices in the pharmaceutical sector right now. With this in mind, our pharmaceutical solutions include a variety of water and wastewater systems used in pharmaceutical plants. We have many years of experience in product development, project management and service offerings for the pharmaceutical industry. We provide support in meeting all regulatory requirements, from design, installation, commissioning, validation and ongoing performance qualification, throughout the life of your system.
Through listening to our customers we have developed a range of utility water, compendial process water, purified water and wastewater treatment solutions for pharmaceutical/cosmetic purposes. These are critical for compliance with regulations and environmental targets, and to improve manufacturing efficiency. Our aim is to get our customers to rethink water through sharing our technologies’ ability to treat all types of wastewater, transforming waste back into a valuable resource, reduce costs associated with water use and reduce the impact industry has on the environment.
Ecological Transformation is our Purpose
Veolia Water Technologies in the UK is the leader and a long established solutions provider of water and wastewater treatment solutions and services. We provide a comprehensive range of water reuse and recovery solutions, process water treatment, wastewater treatment and services to drive efficiencies and sustainable practices across pharmaceutical facilities.
Veolia has dedicated itself to ‘Ecological Transformation’, which refers to an overhaul of processes across all sectors to combat climate change, resource depletion, biodiversity collapse and pollution. Using the UN Sustainable Development Goals to guide us, this environmental campaign is felt throughout the company, propelling us forward to innovate, produce, and implement sustainable, renewable solutions for our customers.
We are focused on supporting our customers to rethink water. Our technologies enable us to treat all types of wastewater, transforming waste back into a valuable resource, reducing costs associated with water use and lessening the impact industry has on the environment.

Addressing Purified Water Generation with Sustainability at the Forefront
In 2023, a leading medical materials manufacturer was just one of many that opted for our Orion system for purified water generation. Installed for their new cleanroom facility in Cambridge, the Orion was chosen for its ability to produce high purity water that meets industry standards, including US Pharmacopeia (USP). The CFR 21 Part 11 compliant chart recorder in the control panel provides easy access to performance and quality reporting for MHRA auditors – the body that aim to deliver a sustainability strategy for medical products in conjunction with international regulators, which contributes to addressing the climate change emergency as part of their strategy for 2024/25.
Orion is a skid-mounted, multi-technology purified water system. This system is ideal for purified water needs within pharmaceutical applications and specifically designed to reduce overall water and energy consumption. This is through a reuse cycle and the introduction of more energy-efficient pumps.
The sustainability features of the Orion include,
– Recovering up to 50% of the water that would normally be sent to drain
– 99% of the materials used that can be recyclable at end of life
– Chemical use is eliminated
– CO2 emissions reduced by 30%

Since the Orion Mark 3 Purified Water Generation System was launched in 2015, which looked specifically at saving pharmaceutical facilities water and energy, we have helped save:
– Over 3.5 Billion litres of Feed Water
– Over 3.5 Billion litres of Wastewater
– Over 10 Million Kw of Electrical Power

Cold Water For Injection
The traditional process for the production of Water for Injection (WFI) requires a phase change of water into steam to remove bacteria and endotoxins, before condensing the steam back into liquid. The high operating temperatures needed for the phase change is an energy intensive process.
We have developed a solution for the production of WFI through a membrane process that provides measurable advantages through low-cost microbiological control interventions that mitigate any contamination risk and avoid the higher capital and operating expenses of evaporating WFI, particularly when most of its uses are specified at low temperatures.
Sustainability is also a critical advantage of Cold WFI systems. Cold WFI is a key solution that can help pharmaceutical companies meet these sustainability goals. Up to 80% of the current WFI demand is generated through heat, which is produced mainly through fossil fuels.
Also, our electric Cold WFI systems are primed for a fully decarbonised operation, as biomanufacturing facilities are increasingly powered by on-site renewable energy sources, such as solar, wind, or waste-to-energy.

Pharmaceutical Wastewater Recycle & Reuse
As well as sustainability in the production of pharmaceutical grade water, we are also determined to reduce the volume of wastewater produced in a pharmaceutical facility. This is why we have developed our EVALED® wastewater evaporation systems for pharmaceutical wastewater treatment.
EVALED® evaporators are an extremely reliable and flexible technological solution as they allow the treatment of a variety of pharmaceutical wastewaters. Evaporation in the treatment of effluents from the pharmaceutical industry allows to achieve different goals:
– Wastewater recovery and reuse
– High quality of recovered distillate for reuse
– Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) where applicable
– Significant reduction in volume of disposable waste
– Pharma API recovery
– Compliance with API discharge limits
We are able to work with our pharmaceutical customers to achieve their environmental targets, concerning reductions in feedwater and raw material consumption, as well as reductions in wastewater disposal. Typical results achieved are:
– Waste water reduction: 98.8%
– Concentration factor: 85 times
– Reduction in disposal costs: 85%

Sustainable Practices Throughout the Life of a Pharmaceutical Water and Wastewater System
The overall performance of the pharmaceutical facility depends on having a compliant water/wastewater treatment management system that remains efficient and cost-effective. We have vast expertise to provide support for this challenge, including digital monitoring tools that give real-time facts to guide decision making. Hubgrade is a flexible tool that connects, monitors and supports the site’s activities providing digital assurances.
With Hubgrade, we address the water optimisation needs of pharmaceutical facilities to respond to the operators’ and managers’ daily challenges on the whole water and wastewater cycle to reduce operating costs while maintaining compliance.
In 2023 alone, we have managed to save our customers 7.15 T of CO2. This is another example of how our technological solutions not only deliver against our commitment to Ecological Transformation, but also help our customers meet their Net Zero ambitions by reducing Scope 3 emissions.

Water Treatment Chemicals
Our Water Treatment Chemical service experts are dedicated to chemical water conditioning for process and wastewater applications.
From water entering a plant to leaving a plant, we have the expertise, innovation and depth of product lines to manage the water treatment challenges of most process water systems. By thinking holistically of the mechanical, operational and chemical components of a process water system, we deliver bespoke solutions that maintain compliance as well as:
– Create lower levels of sludge which is non-hazardous, and results in reduced disposal costs.
– The chemicals dissolve more effectively resulting in more reliable mixing, less blockages and reduced maintenance costs
– The manufacturing process for our water based polymers has a lesser environmental impact compared with traditional oil based industry standard alternatives

Embracing Sustainability Right from the Manufacturing Stage
The Veolia Water Technologies manufacturing facility embodies our commitment to sustainability. The facility boasts a total annual production capacity of over 1,000 standard units plus all associated consumables, spares and parts.
Facilitating reduction, reuse and recycling are at the heart of the site and how we operate. The roofs are layered with solar panels for the production of 100 kilowatts of electricity an hour.
Additionally, measures have been put in place to reduce water consumption. For example, the test benches are equipped with neutralisation tanks to store and neutralise processed water. This is then recirculated and helps save more than 250,000 litres of water a year. This is in addition to reducing the site’s chemical drainage, which is controlled by neutralising the effluents, and will work alongside all the other existing water-saving methods throughout the other buildings.