New Industrial Wastewater Pretreatment Plant

Background

We were asked to bid on the development of a wastewater pretreatment system for which another firm had completed the preliminary engineering. Upon review of the bid documents, our team determined that the solution that had been identified, an Ultrafiltration (UF) system, was not the best solution for the problem. We suggested a Dissolved Air Flotation (DAF) system as an alternate. Our suggestion was well received by the client and we were selected to design and install the solution.

Approach

The client tasked our team with developing the pretreatment system to allow wastewater from the manufacturing process to be discharged into the local municipal wastewater system. This would eliminate trucking of 20,000 gallons of wastewater every day at a significant cost savings. To direct the discharge into the municipal system, the pretreatment system had to include unit operations to separate free and emulsified Fats, Oils, and Greases (FOGs), pH adjustment, and reduction of Total Suspended Solids (TSS).  Another challenge was that a blanching operation in the plant was to be shut down removing a large volume of “clean” wastewater, concentrating system influent FOG and TSS as well as higher a proportion of non-compliant pH wastewater out of the acceptable range for the municipal system. The client required that the project be completed in two phases:

• Phase 1: Install pH Correction, and Free oil and gross solids removal
• Phase 2: Install DAF unit to remove emulsified FOG and TSS

Results

Our services for this project included wastewater design and engineering, site support, equipment procurement, and construction management. Our team completed the project on schedule and the client achieved their goal to be able to discharge into the municipal wastewater system, resulting in immediate savings for the client.