New discharge limits put production water under pressure
Incoming environmental regulations limited the wastewater discharge for a dairy manufacturing a variety of milk products. Encouraging results from a bench-scale study and discussions with Ecolutia led to the installation of a temporary service solution to recover milk evaporator condensate.
Proving the long-term case and economic viability of the solution was essential for compliance with the new regulations. However, recovery of the condensate needed to be on a modest footprint, sufficiently reduce wastewater discharge, adaptable for upgrades, suitable for future site growth plans, and a quality of condensate usable onsite.
A modular solution, fine tuning each variable and configuration
With project goals set, Ecolutia deployed its mobile modular containerised and skid-mounted treatment systems. The small footprint and modular design made the systems ideal for the planned configuration work and adjustments to be tested by the project engineers — equipment could be reset swiftly between configurations to find the optimum setup while minimising non-production periods.
Reuse proven — and the pilot extended beyond a year
Initial findings showed that recovered condensate could lower freshwater consumption and wastewater discharge costs, while reducing the dairy’s environmental impact against the impending regulations.
The original installation was a pilot plant that proved the full-flow viability of the bench-scale study. This successful pilot led to an extension to test other complementary water treatment options — adding UV disinfection and chlorination trials for microbiological purity as well as firming up additional economics as part of the dairy’s permanent long-term solution.
