When a lack of local water supply was restricting the expansion of a food processing facility, we designed a wastewater reuse process that enabled 130,000 gallons per day of water to be recovered.
Water use at the food processing facility was increasing due to a production expansion and the facility was faced with treating its wastewater to a high level of quality to meet stringent discharge requirements for nutrients.
Our approach
We conducted feasibility studies to assess the options for upgrading the onsite industrial wastewater treatment plant to enable the treated effluent to meet the effluent discharge requirements and be reused in its cooling towers and for truck washing. Our study focused on the application of nutrient removal technologies that would allow for reuse of the existing dissolved air flotation (DAF) system, lagoon basins and discharge outfall. Membrane bioreactor treatment was selected as the best technology to achieve the facility’s objectives.
We then designed and supported the installation a new wastewater treatment facility that included screening, DAF, a membrane bioreactor to address the nutrients and organics in the wastewater discharge, and UV disinfection. Reverse osmosis allows the recovery of more than 130,000 gallons per day of water for use in cooling towers and truck washing. The wastewater sludge is dewatered and sent offsite for composting.
As a cost reduction method, all tanks for anoxic, aerobic and flow attenuation were constructed of insulated epoxy lined steel tanks. Our services included project management, mechanical, structural, architectural, instrumentation, and HVAC mechanical systems and environmental. We also supervised the installation of additional groundwater monitoring wells and the collection of groundwater samples from new and existing monitoring wells to determine potential impacts to the surficial aquifer resulting from the upgraded wastewater treatment facility.
Outcome
The new the industrial wastewater treatment plant enabled the client to pursue its expansion plans without placing undue stress on the community’s water supply.