Food & Beverage Industry Wastewater Treatment

INDUSTRY TYPE – Food Processing – Food & Beverage Producers

Ecologix Environmental Systems offers a comprehensive selection of wastewater equipment and technologies that solve the challenges that fats, proteins, and carbohydrates pose to the food and beverage industry. Whether your process requires pretreatment, membrane filtration, disinfection, or odor removal, Ecologix has the expertise and treatment technologies to meet and exceed your compliance standards.

BACKGROUND / HAZARDS PRESENTED BY FOOD & BEVERAGE PRODUCER WASTEWATER

In food processing applications, water is used as an ingredient, an initial and intermediate cleaning source, an efficient transportation conveyor of raw materials, and/or the principal agent for sanitizing plant machinery and work areas. As a result of this extensive water use, the food industry’s primary concern is that water and wastewater is handled in the most cost-effective method and reused in whatever capacity possible to reduce costs and remain environmentally compliant. For optimal effectiveness and efficiency, process design for each food industry application should be specific to your plant needs. When the main concern is to reduce regulated constituents to permissible discharge levels, a pretreatment system is often the most direct and cost-effective solution. You can achieve significant removal of suspended solids, oil and grease, and BOD by implementing a system based on the Dissolved Air Flotation process.

Market Segments Served

Cooking Plants
Rendering Plants
Processing Plants
Bottling Plants
Boiler Water Treatment
Cooling Towers
Flavors, Additives
Bakeries

INFLUENT CHARACTERISTICS

These figures represent typical measured content levels of major contaminants in wastewater as it issues from the plant:

COD (Chemical Oxygen Demand) – 1,000 – 5,000 mg/L
BOD (Biological Oxygen Demand) – 500 – 3,000 mg/L
TSS (Total Suspended Solids) – 200 – 5,000 mg/L
TP (Total Phosphorous) – 5 – 150 mg/L
TKN (Total Kjeldahl Nitrogen) – 50 – 1,000 mg/L
FOG (Fats, Oil & Grease) – 100 – 1,500 mg/L

EFFLUENT – REQUIRED CHARACTERISTICS

These figures represent typical required content level limits of major contaminants in treated wastewater before it is allowed to be discharged into public water supplies:

COD (Chemical Oxygen Demand) – ≤ 1,000 mg/L
BOD (Biological Oxygen Demand) – ≤ 250 mg/L
TSS (Total Suspended Solids) – ≤ 250 mg/L
TP (Total Phosphorous) – ≤ 20 mg/L
TKN (Total Kjeldahl Nitrogen) – ≤ 50 mg/L
FOG (Fats, Oil & Grease) – ≤ 100 mg/L

OPTIMUM TREATMENT SOLUTIONS

Pretreatment of wastewater from a commercial food or beverage processing plant is necessary before discharging to a municipal sewer system because municipal treatment plants are incapable of removing the contaminant densities typical of these plants’ wastewater. A very efficient and cost-effective way to accomplish effective pretreatment is through the operation of a Dissolved Air Flotation (DAF) system and/or a biological treatment system. These systems are the optimal solution for removal of materials such as solids, biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), fat, oil, and grease (FOG).

Pretreatment using a DAF system in a commercial food or beverage processing plant will allow for reduction of FOG by up to 99% and Total Suspended Solids (TSS) by up to 97%. The requirement for flocculants, as well as pH adjustment of the water, for effective FOG removal can be fully automated, using the Ecologix Enhanced Dissolved Air Flotation System.

PROCESS DESCRIPTION

A DAF system utilizes a separation technique that injects microscopic air bubbles into the DAF tank.
These tiny bubbles attach to the insoluble pollutant materials, floating them to the surface the way a life preserver keeps a person afloat.
Certain materials used in the baking process are heavier than water. They require the addition of flocculants, which attract suspended contaminant particles and air. When combined, these two substances cause the pollutants to join in clusters and force them to float to the pretreatment vessel’s surface.
These accumulating contaminants at the surface of the DAF vessel are what is known as “sludge.” They are then scraped off the surface of the water and removed from the treatment process.
Clean water then exits at the bottom of the DAF vessel and can now be safely discharged to the sewer.

If your commercial food or beverage processing plant is struggling to meet strict new wastewater discharge requirements, call 678-514-2100 or contact us today. We will take care of setting you up with an onsite package pretreatment plant, so you can stay compliant while getting back to what you do best.