7.5.2025

Mamec delivers mixing solutions for wastewater treatment

Mamec is a mixing solutions specialist that – among other applications – designs and implements solutions for municipal water treatment processes. Since sites and specific needs vary, individual customisation and optimisation achieve the best end result.

Wastewater treatment protects both the environment and human health, and it’s an essential part of sustainable urban water management. Wastewater from domestic, industrial and other uses can contain a wide range of impurities and substances harmful to water systems, and these have specific requirements for removal.

Mixing is a key part of the water treatment process. Choosing the right mixing method and technology – then carefully implementing and optimising the solution for the site – are key to helping a water treatment plant improve process efficiency, reduce energy consumption and achieve better treatment results.

Mamec has operated in demanding industrial mixing process applications for over 70 years and has been applying its technological expertise to water treatment for decades. The company implements tailor-made solutions for new wastewater treatment plants, both upgrading existing plants and renovating particularly demanding sites.

“We’ve got extensive experience in designing and implementing various water mixing processes. This has given us a real understanding of both the impurities in wastewater, as well as the flows and management of water masses,” states Mamec Business Director Martti Heikkilä.

Process-specific mixing technology

Mamec designs and implements a wide range of mixing solutions for water treatment plants and helps them choose the most fit-for-purpose methods for their process.

The most common method of mixing wastewater is mechanical mixing. This is achieved by, for example, paddle, propeller or gate agitators, which are particularly effective for handling large volumes of water. Air mixing, on the other hand, is favoured for processing biological material – it brings oxygen into the process, which improves microbial activity.

In hydrodynamic mixing, water is moved with the force of a water flow using pumped water or eductors. In chemical mixing, coagulants and flocculants, for example, are evenly mixed with the wastewater, enabling the thickening and flocculation processes.

The choice of mixing technology is influenced by several factors.

“The amount of organic matter and solids in the wastewater will affect what type of mixing should be used and how powerful it needs to be. Also, mixing needs may vary depending on the stage of the process – for example in biological, chemical or physical processing. The energy consumption of the technology is another factor that’s always important, particularly for energy-intensive mixing processes,” says Heikkilä.

Water treatment requires controlled and delicate turbidity

Mamec always designs and manufactures its mixing solutions individually to meet the specific requirements of each site. The company is currently making the final deliveries for an extensive and multi-year water treatment plant refurbishment project where gate paddle agitators were customised to mix and direct water flows with large brushes in precisely the right way.

“A particular requirement for this process was an extremely slow rotation of the mixers. Agitating the water has to be done delicately, because mixing too quickly will make the flocs disintegrate. The gear motor rotates at around 1000-1500 rpm, so the fact that the shaft has to rotate at less than five rpm creates a challenge for the gear ratio,” explains Ilkka Haapala, Mamec’s Key Account Manager.

Here, too, Mamec’s modern design and manufacturing expertise – and its wide-ranging knowledge of various processes, including for the specific needs of water treatment – helped solve the challenge.

“Since the 1980s, we’ve been providing customised water treatment solutions to our customers in wastewater treatment plants, the paper industry, chemical and agricultural industries, among others. We’ve also been supplying agitators to clean water treatment plants for 20 to 30 years,” says Haapala, who’s been working at Mamec for 24 years himself.

“In addition to our extensive experience and process expertise, our strengths include our in-house design and manufacturing of solutions from the ground up – all under one roof.”