Potato processing company dilemma – sink or float?

25 October 2022

A major British potato processing company recently had an interesting dilemma when it came to processing waste waters from its potato processing factory.

Some of the material naturally wanted to settle while some wanted to float. Solids, such as starch and potato debris, have a relatively high specific gravity (SG) and will readily settle, while other materials, such as potato fines, fats, oils and greases (FOGs), will naturally want to float.

MSE Systems came up with a solution to the problem.

The most appropriate solution, MSE Systems decided, was to settle solids out using a settling tank and a decanter centrifuge for the heavy solids in the effluent waste prior to using a dissolved air flotation unit DAF to float out the finer solids along with any FOGs.

Adopting this approach also meant that the chemicals used at site were minimised as most of the settleable solids were removed before the physio chemical pre-treatment on the DAF unit. This approach allowed for further optimisation of the chemical and polymer treatment regime saving chemicals and money for the operation.

Cleaning the wastewater in this way meant that the client could discharge the treated water into an existing sewer discharge safely and within its consent parameters. This also provided the opportunity for using further treatment techniques in the future such as Membrane Bio Reactor (MBR), Micro Filtration (MF), Ultra Filtration (UF), Reverse Osmosis (RO), Ozone, and Chlorination ahead of possible water Recycling Reuse at the site.

Further information about the solution, get in touch by emailing us at Info@msesystems.co.uk

Or, to discover more about how MSE Systems can design, install and maintain your complete effluent treatment solution or enhance and optimise an existing plant, get in touch with our expert team today.