Hochland purifies wastewater with energy-efficient Biomar® plant
With all-year-round reliability, the resource-efficient Biomar® aerobic technology reduces costs
What we did
It all began with a small cheese factory in Allgäu. Hochland and its subsidiaries now has a presence on several continents. In addition to two plants in Germany, the group has eleven other cheese production sites in France, Spain, Poland, Romania, Russia and the USA. Hochland is the leading cheese manufacturer in Russia and has been producing cream cheese in its Prokhorovka plant in western Russia since 2012. In response to demand, production has been continuously ramped up.
Objective
The cheese producer is to collect all the process-related wastewater from the plant and purify it in accordance with the authorities’ high requirements. Hochland achieves this by using an aerobic Biomar® plant and thus complies with the strict threshold values for a wide range of parameters.
Solution
EnviroChemie developed a sustainable plant concept. To this end, EnviroChemie planned and installed the biological Biomar® OSB process which utilises an activated sludge process with downstream sedimentation. This makes use of the capacity of naturally growing micro-organisms to convert contaminants, pollutants or impurities in the wastewater into biomass (excess sludge) and CO2 and to remove them from the wastewater.
This activated sludge procedure uses the following processes:
- Oxidative degradation of COD and BSB5
- Reduction of nitrogen concentrations through ammonification, nitrification and denitrification
- Reduction of phosphorous concentrations by the absorption of phosphorous (biological phosphorous), formation of polyphosphates, and phosphorous precipitation if required.
Results
With the plant solution installed by EnviroChemie, the dairy gains planning reliability and is less affected by any future increases in disposal costs. The wastewater can be discharged into the local watercourse once it has been purified by the Biomar® OSB process. It also complies with local authority standards. Instead of discharging the wastewater into the sewerage system with the associated significant charges, Hochland can now purify the wastewater to a quality that can be discharged directly and thus reduce costs.
