ACTI-Mag stabilizes process pH, increases biogas production and decrease effluent phosphorus at a large food manufacturing plant, in Queensland, Australia.
case study summary
Challenges
- Excessive pH, nitrates and phosphates levels in rendering plant effluent.
- Excessive struvite formation and pipe blockage.
- Low gas yields from anaerobic ponds.
Objective
- Effectively control pH of effluent stream.
- Precipitate nitrates and phosphates.
- Eliminate blockages by stopping struvite formation on critical infrastructure.
- Increase methane gas yields in anaerobic ponds.
Solution
Download Success story
ACTI-Mag stabilizes process pH, increases biogas production and decreases effluent phosphorus at a large food manufacturing plant.
Download the PDF NowBenefits of ACTI-Mag
Reduction of phosphorous
Faster neutralisation of wastewater sludge reduction
Prevention of struvite pipe blockages
Increased biogas production, resulting in lower energy costs
Introduction
A large food manufacturing plant operate a rendering plant that processes 4,000,000 kgs of animal waste per week. The facility processes excess, non-edible offal from the meat and poultry industry to produce tallow, poultry oil as well as poultry, blood and feather meals.
The plant uses a substantial amount of energy for its operations. To process 55,000 kgs of raw material per hour, the plant consumes $130,000 worth of electricity per month, burning 24,000 tonnes of black coal per year. The plant sources half its energy from a coal powered generator and the other half from biogas generated from the anaerobic treatment of waste water.
The effluent is initially treated in covered anaerobic lagoons (CAL), before being aerobically treated in a sequenced batch reactor (SBR.) The effluent then flows to an irrigation dam via a maturation pond.
The final effluent is irrigated onto the plant’s own woodlot and pasture land.
The CALs capture methane rich biogas that is used to fire gas boilers, which produces the steam required for processing the raw material. This renewable method reduces the plant’s reliance on coal and makes the wastewater treatment a source of energy and revenue stream.
Rendering plant effluent needs to be further processed to remove high levels of nitrates and phosphates. The SBR stage is efficient at removing nitrates but is unable to sufficiently reduce phosphates. This results in the final effluent exceeding the allowable phosphate limit by double. Additionally, the nitrates and phosphates were co-precipitating in pipes to form struvite crystals and causing blockages.
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