Corporate Sustainability – A Meat Producer Who Started Early
Background
Include your wastewater treatment solution in your construction plans
What happens when your local wastewater treatment facility won’t work with you on surcharges, but simply insists you solve your wastewater problem yourself? That’s when you call MacDermid Envio. We understand every aspect of wastewater treatment, and we tailor each solution because we know that each client has specific needs.
Many manufacturers may not see the value of bringing in their wastewater treatment partner in the early stages of designing their facility. Beginning the wastewater treatment plan before—rather than after—the rest of the facility is built is the best way to ensure optimal cost for treatment from the onset. That’s exactly what one recent meat processing manufacturer did with a plan to open a new facility designed to process meat to supply a major grocery store chain with case-ready beef, chicken, and pork products in 2018.
Because this client brought us in during the design phase, this new facility will be constructed with a fully optimized system to efficiently deal with wastewater. Most facilities only consider wastewater treatment as an afterthought, but this client included this crucial step in the production process as part of the overall design right from the beginning. As a result, the entire facility will open in Q3 2018 and be fully prepared to treat all of its wastewater.
Challenges
Corporate sustainability policies prohibited going over POTW limits
During the onset of constructing this new facility, they faced a few challenges. Their POTW couldn’t take on the additional containment load without charging them high fees. Corporate sustainability policies wouldn’t allow them to just go over the limits and pay surcharges. The demand for pork products for the major grocery store chain meant they needed to solve their issues quickly.
Solutions
MacDermid Envio addressed all their wastewater needs for their new facility
We studied the plant’s expected flows and expected waste strength levels, mainly TSS and BOD levels. With a plant flow of 50,000 GPD on average and 80,000 GPD maximum, our design will bring TSS and BOD levels within POTW limits – 1000 mg/l BOD and 300 mg/l TSS. The wastewater treatment solution will be designed with Screening, Equalization, DAF, MBBR, post-MBBR, DAF, solids dewatering, and automated chemical feed and monitoring.
Results
MacDermid Envio’s wastewater treatment facility ensures this meat processing plant will never incur surcharges. Without planning for this in the beginning, the company may have incurred charges for BOD (biochemical oxygen demand) and TSS (total suspended solids) in excess of $295 a day. At 305 operating days annually, this would have cost as much as $105,000 per year. Indeed, the company would have often been in violation of their permit for BOD, O&G (oil and gas), and pH if they had not done any treatment at all. Accounting for all of this from the beginning allowed the company to avoid these problems.
A crucial part of our plan was the Performance Guarantee Program. The renewable program interested the customer because it ensures 100% accountability from MacDermid Envio for years to come. This competitive advantage was key to us winning the bid to design and install in their new facility.
To learn more about MacDermid Envio’s meat processing wastewater treatment solutions, visit our meat processing industry spotlight page.