Inevitable stop on the Danube - Delta plans to open new terminal for collecting ship waste, expand its dock and build refinery in Kladovo

Each ship on the Danube carries between 3,000 and 5,000 kilograms of a mixture of waste oil, fuel and water. A big problem of all ships and vessels was the lack of possibility of disposing of ship waste. On the territory of Serbia, there was no place or company along 600 kilometers of the Danube with a capacity, plant or permit to render this type of services.

Kladovo-based Delta opened in September 2011 the first ship waste oil treatment plant in Serbia, in which EUR 2 million were invested. Delta has built a system for collecting ship waste as well as a plant for recycling waste oil, oily water, oily cloths and filters, fecal water and municipal waste. In order to make its offer complete, this company now plans new investments in the expansion of its portfolio of services for all types of ships.

- For the time being, we collect and process waste oil, oily water and, partially, oily cloths. We are now preparing to expand our offer to ships, that is, to collect fecal water from ships as well. A regulation forbidding ships to release their fecal water into the Danube and stipulating that each ship must have a built-in tank and sell that waste at a place designated for that at ports has already come into force in the European Union and is expected to become effective in Serbia in 2016 - Mladen Gencic, the owner of Kladovo-based Delta, says to eKapija.

The company Delta owns a storage for oil derivatives and a dock for ships at the 937th kilometer of the Danube, that is, one kilometer away from Djerdap.

- Ships are offered to fill the tank with fuel and dispose of waste at the same place, which represents a unique concept. We now plan to boost production, reception and storage capacities. A new terminal for collecting waste will be opened soon and the existing dock will be expanded because it has already become too small. The plan is also to build a kind of refinery, that is, a waste oil recycling system, with the capacity of up to 1,000 tonnes a month - says our interlocutor.

According to Delta's estimates, they need about EUR 3.6 million for these new services and plan to apply for a grant from the EU funds.

- A significant amount of money is required for new projects, and we will try to provide it through the Danube Strategy. If the EU funds support us, we will start preparing the documentation as early as this year. However, if we have to rely on our own resources, new projects will have to wait until the next year.

According to our interlocutor, no other “bunker base“ on the old continent features a waste collection center and a waste recycling center in one place. That is why the Serbian investment is promoted as a pilot project in Europe. Thanks to aforementioned waste treatment plant, domestic and foreign ships can now dispose of their waste at a place registered and designated for that instead of releasing it into the Danube, for which they are issued appropriate documents to present to competent authorities.

(Mladen Gencic)

For its waste oil recycling system project, Delta won the 2012 Aurea award for the Best Social Utility.

Although they have only recently started collecting waste from ships, Gencic points out that they are satisfied with the business results.

This Kladovo-based company started exporting by-products of the waste oil recycling process in January. The export was halted in February because of the snow, but it reached 100 tonnes in March.

- There are two types of by-products of the recycling process: raw materials, whose price in the European market amounts to USD 600-650 per tonne, and intermediate goods, the price of which is close to USD 1,000 per tonne, so that we are satisfied. For now, these products are exported to Romania and Bulgaria - says the CEO of Delta.

S.O.