Food Processing

CEQUESTA WATER in the Food Industry

See also Septic Tanks and Grease Fat Trap Effluent Polishing - for an example of a Cequesta Water solution in the Food Industry.

The food industry is a complex, global collective of diverse businesses that supply much of the food energy consumed by the world population. Only subsistence farmers, those who survive on what they grow, can be considered outside of the scope of the modern food industry.

The food industry includes

Regulation: local, regional, national and international rules and regulations for food production and sale, including food quality and food safety, and industry lobbying activities
Education: academic, vocational, consultancy
Research and development: food technology
Financial services insurance, credit
Manufacturing: agrichemicals, seed, farm machinery and supplies, agricultural construction, etc.
Agriculture: raising of crops and livestock, seafood
Food processing: preparation of fresh products for market, manufacture of prepared food products
Marketing: promotion of generic products (e.g. milk board), new products, public opinion, through advertising, packaging, public relations, etc.
Wholesale and distribution: warehousing, transportation, logistics
Pollution control solutions providers

The industry by numbers

The global food and beverage (F&B) sector, which comprises farming, food production, distribution, retail and catering, was valued at $5.7 trillion USD in 2008.

The industry is one of the major contributors to growth of all economies and has historically witnessed consistent growth. The industry is expected to increase at a CAGR of 3.5 percent to $7 trillion USD by 2014. In terms of structure, the industry is highly fragmented and the top few players - Nestlé, Kraft Foods, Unilever and Cargill - account for less than 5 percent of the overall value. Europe accounts for the largest share in the global F&B industry, generating revenues of $1.4 trillion USD4 in 2007 and employing 4million workers, followed by the US, which contributed $1 trillion USD. However, Asia, led by China and India, is now emerging as a major contributor of raw material to the F&B industry. India’s F&B market was valued at $182 billion5 in 2007-08 while the food processing sector alone was worth $72 billion in 2008. China’s food processing sector increased by 13.6 percent from $44 billion in 2007 to $50 billion USD in 2008.

Some food processing operations

Meat processing and packing, sea food, bakeries, potatoes frying, dairies, confection and sweets, coffee, soft and alcoholic beverages, Soy beans protein extraction, vegetable oils, fruits and vegetables caning, frozen and chilled meals, salads, soups, wineries, olive oil, and many others.

This huge business sector is very polluting, major investments are required in order to properly protect the nearby environment, water bodies, soil and air.

Typical wastewater problems

Food processing operations generates diverse wastewater streams which are characterized by high BOD and COD loads, high organic TSS, high loads of FOG, detergent, dusts, high pH variations.

Food Processing Waste water problems 1

Food Processing Waste water problems 2

Treatment approach

There is no singles "text book" solution for all cases, but some common practices are typical and applied to most cases:

Coarse solids separation by various types of screening devices
Flow balancing by storage tanks or basins
pH correction, usually as part of the treatment process
DAF separation for solids and FOG
Sludge dewatering
Post treatment, as biological aerobic and anaerobic including energy generation from biogas (sometimes the anaerobic stage will be the first and solids separation and sludge dewatering downstream.a

For an example of a Cequesta Water solution:

please see Septic Tanks and Grease Fat Trap Effluent Polishing

CEQUESTA WATER activity

Design
Supplying our in house equipment and others
Installation and supervision
Production of our propitiatory products:

Our strength is in solids and FOG removal, sludge dewatering, solution design and project support.Thanks to our long and diverse experience and our focus on small to medium size projects, we can bring added values to our customers' benefit.

Our solutions will be always characterized by: