One of the country’s largest citrus and fruit processors has partnered with sustainable water and energy solutions provider Talbot to effectively manage wastewater at two of its fruit processing facilities.

The first plant was installed and commissioned in 2019 and employs dissolved air flotation (DAF) technology as a cost-effective way of removing suspended matter from the facility’s wastewater stream.

“Over a period of three months, we ran tests to establish the quality of effluent we were dealing with, performed laboratory-scale trails and conducted a full review of available technologies to establish the most suitable solution to achieve the client’s objectives within a strict budget,” says Talbot senior process engineer Alex Hesketh.

The turnkey installation – including civil, mechanical and electrical works – was completed in six months.

Plant performance, originally under the guidance of the onsite Talbot team, has consistently exceeded customer expectations as shown by two key indicators. There was a more than 70% recorded reduction in chemical oxygen demand across the plant while the drop in total suspended solids exceeded 85%.

The result is that the plant has not just achieved, but surpassed, municipal discharge requirements. To add further kudos to the exercise, operational chemical costs were more than 50% lower than the customer’s expectations. This was achieved through hands-on support delivered by the Talbot site operations team.

On the back of this success, the company – which supplies both the domestic and international markets – has commenced with the installation of a much larger wastewater treatment plant at a second production facility.

“This latest project will result in the treatment of up to 1,650 cubic metres a day and is the first phase of a complete wastewater solution that could potentially include future water and biogas recovery,” says Hesketh.

This project employs the innovative GEM® System supplied by US technology provider Clean Water Technology. This patented technology is an advanced flotation and flocculation solution which offers higher performance in respect of separation efficiency and chemical use than conventional DAF treatment. The project, which also reduces plant footprint requirements, is expected to be completed later this year.

Talbot is a respected water and energy solutions provider that helps organisations across several sectors manage their water risks. This includes strategic water advice and the implementation of suitable technologies that enable them to achieve regulatory compliance, reduce their dependence on increasingly strained external water sources and at the same time increase profitability through the recovery and optimisation of water and energy resources.