Biowater Technology Biological Wastewater Treatment for Food Processors

Water usage and wastewater discharge are high on anyone’s list of critical environmental issues. Many food processing facilities use more than one million gallons of water per day. Characteristics of food processing wastewater include: high BOD and COD, high fats, oils and grease (FOG), and high total suspended solids (TSS).

Reducing food processing wastewater treatment surcharges

Food processors often incur wastewater treatment surcharges to discharge their wastewater to the municipalities. These wastewater surcharges can be an overwhelming part of their costs for plant operations.

Benefits to an upgrade for a food processing wastewater treatment facility to a Biowater Technology biological wastewater treatment system include: compliance with POTW discharge limits, water reuse for irrigation, solids for use as animal food, reduction of surcharges from publically owned treatment works (POTW), creation of usable energy from waste, promotion of corporate sustainability, reuse of process water and reduction of costs of your food processing wastewater treatment. Many customers have benefitted from retrofitting their existing tankage to our treatment processes.

Food processing wastewater treatment

Specific food processing industries in which Biowater Technology has experience include, but are not limited to: meat packing wastewater, poultry processing wastewater, condiment and dressing production wastewater, egg processing wastewater, dairy processing wastewater, fish processing wastewater, snack food production wastewater and bakery goods processing wastewater.

Return on investment for your food processing wastewater treatment system

Food processing customers’ report costs often go down after installation of our system. For instance, sludge hauling costs, chemical usage and overall cost to operate the plant are substantially reduced after an installation of the Biowater CMFF® complete mix fixed-film treatment system. Our systems can be used for new construction or an upgrade of an old food processing wastewater treatment plant to meet new food processing wastewater regulations.

Food processing wastewater treatment facilities can increase their wastewater treatment capacity in their existing tanks. The amount of processing wastewater treated is doubled in most cases – in the same tanks.

Case study: food processing wastewater treatment for a vitamin and food supplement manufacturer

• Processing wastewater characteristics: proteins, carbohydrates and fats
• Challenges: fluctuations in products and seasonal changes in source materials (Spring/Fall – 50/50%, Winter – 80/20%, and Summer – 20/80%)
• Extremely cold temperatures
• Process used: Biowater’s CFAS® combined fixed-film activated sludge using BWT -X biofilm carriers
• Result: 90% COD removal in 10% of the basin volume

Case study: food processing wastewater treatment for a dairy processor

Milk, cheese, sour cream, butter and yogurt wastewater were treated in this project.

• Processing wastewater characteristics: calcium, phosphate, carbonate, sulfate and other ions
• Challenges: wastewater scaling issues, high surcharges to discharge to the municipality and limited space
• Result: very low maintenance costs, substantial reduction in surcharges; they used existing tankage and maintained a small footprint

In addition to the above examples, our Biowater Technology wastewater treatment systems optimize treatment configurations to reduce the wastewater impacts created by a customer’s Clean in Place (CIP) and Clean Out Of Place (COP) processes and to ensure discharge compliance is achieved.

Food processing generates wastewater rich in highly soluble and biodegradable organic compounds but it can also contain fats, oil, grease and high concentrations of colloidal material. We assist our customers in determining the best suited solution when it comes to lifecycle benefit associated with primary treatment in combination with biological/secondary treatment of food waste streams.

Pilot studies for portable wastewater treatment plants

Biowater Technology has portable wastewater treatment plants available. If you are interested in piloting our process please contact us.

About Biowater Technology

Biowater Technology is an international provider of biological water and wastewater treatment systems. Our products include: MBBR, IFAS, package systems and our new-generation MBBR – CFIC® continuous flow intermittent cleaning process, which reduces operating costs by 20%-30%.

Our employees offer over 40 years’ experience in the water and wastewater industry. The company focus is on the development and sale of innovative technologies and solutions for both industrial and municipal markets. We pride ourselves on our attention to detail and knowledge of biological fixed film design.