Water Treatment for Food Industry

Water quality of food & beverage industry

As in other cases of industrial wastewater treatment, we assume that each company and each production line has peculiar purification needs, and examples can only be given: tests with pilot units will then be essential to enucleate specific needs.

However, talking about water treatment for the food industry, we note a common feature of many plants: high load of suspended solids and, often, significant amounts of oils and fats (FOG). Think for example of delicatessens, slaughterhouses and dairies: all contexts generally rich in pollutants of an organic nature. The action of biological oxidation systems is often useful for the biodegradation of these substances: this is provided that pre-treatment (e.g., with flotation systems) is carried out to remove the coarser components and prevent biological treatment from being inhibited by the fats themselves.

Another frequently noted need is also the extreme variability, during the day and throughout the year, of the load to be disposed of: wineries and the aforementioned slaughterhouses are just two examples of contexts characterized by high seasonal variability. Speaking of service wastewater, the canteens of every company (food and non-food) produce a load of wastewater that is variable and concentrated in a few hours of the day. In all these cases, it is therefore useful to provide flexible water treatment systems capable of withstanding large increases in load.

Finally, as in all process industries, the presence of often limited space benefits modular and space-saving solutions.

MITA water treatment technologies for the food industry

These are some of MITA Water Technologies’ most proven solutions for industrial wastewater treatment in food & beverage companies.

• Biorulli® Biological Oxidation Systems. Reduced footprint, modularity, flexible operation in case of sudden load increases: they are the ideal solution for “difficult” waters highly loaded with suspended solids and high BOD. They are a useful addition to mechanical pretreatment (upstream) and finishing solutions (downstream).
• Dissolved air floaters (DAF). Their mechanical action removes high amounts of fats and prevents them from inhibiting subsequent treatments such as biological ones.
• Oilpack oil separators and Flowpack decanters. Equipment that does not require continuous operation and is, therefore, an excellent pre-treatment solution (e.g., for yard runoff after weather events).