Treating high sugar wastewater in the Food & Beverage sector with new biological technology. A case study.

As water authorities tighten regulation and increase surcharges, the trend is for companies to treat and reduce their Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) load onsite. For any food processing company, BOD represents a costly challenge in managing its wastewater discharge.This case study details a commercial Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) at a multinational confectionery producer, based in Australia. As part of the company’s effluent improvement program, they sought to reduce their discharge wastewater BOD to support environmental commitments and to reduce increasing trade waste surcharges.The company trialled a new type of attached growth, above ground bioreactor technology, known as BioGill. In operation for over 2 ½ years, recent plant results show the average discharge COD is less than 400 mg/L and BOD less than 100 mg/L reduced from an influent COD of approximately 2,000 mg/L. The results show that this new type of bioreactor technology has effectively reduced the liquid trade waste concentration at the plant to comply with the regulatory requirements, leading to significant savings in discharge fees.