A successful food processing business was facing production constraints due to limited treatment capacity of their onsite wastewater treatment plant (WWTP).
After an evaluation of the wastewater and flow characteristics, Plumley Engineering designed a flow equalization tank as a first step to maximize the efficiency of the existing WWTP. This allowed for increased production by storing wastewater during times of peak flow and running it through the WWTP at a constant rate during off hours and weekends.
To accommodate additional production increases, Phase 2 of the project included obtaining a modified State Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (SPDES) permit and an expansion design of the WWTP to double its capacity.
Faced with stringent effluent limits, the expansion incorporated a membrane bioreactor (MBR) to provide the high degree of treatment needed to protect the receiving stream. The use of the MBR technology, which replaces the conventional clarifier with membranes and operates at a much higher solids concentration, allowed for increasing the design flow using existing tankage, resulting in significant cost saving.
