Wastewater Treatment Case Studies

The Problem

The company, now a valued customer, was using substantial amounts of peracetic acid and chlorine to control potential microbiological issues in their fruit and vegetable processing.

Their closed, continuously flowing system contained freshwater treated with peracetic acid and chlorine. Processing began once the chemicals reached a certain level, and processing stopped once the chemical levels dropped to a certain point, because they couldn’t re-dose the system while it contained organic product. Shutdowns would occur two to three times daily, during which the water could get too warm and cause the vegetables to break down and soften, threatening their integrity and shelf life.

Having to change out the water, re-dose with chemicals, and restart the system multiple times per day was an inefficient, time-consuming process, causing the company to lose money through excessive labor costs and the overuse and waste of expensive chemicals.

The Spiral Water Solution

Spiral Water Technologies’ goal was to keep the system operating continuously while consuming fewer chemicals. We removed as much organic material from the process water as possible using our automated self-cleaning filters. Doing so significantly lowered the amount of chemicals needed to treat the system, eliminated daily shutdowns, and kept operations running continuously.

We installed a single Series H-1000 liquid/solid separator with an automatic self-cleaning filter to maximize separation in medium to high flow, high temperature, and high-pressure applications.

The Results

The customer successfully lowered their chemical usage by about 30% and decreased chemical costs by 60%. They can now run continuous processing operations without pausing to restart the system, considerably improving processing uptime. The customer has since installed the same liquid/solid separator and filter solution in another one of their facilities.

The Problem

The company was trucking its raw pomegranate juice to an off-site separation system. The extreme centrifugal forces applied to the juice had an adverse effect on the flavor. During the separation process, for every 3,000-gallon batch, approximately 400 gallons of product was lost in processing. Given the product’s high retail value, the problem was creating a significant business expense.

The Spiral Water Solution

We installed a skid with a Spiral Water Technologies 15-micron Model 810 filter that features our proprietary, automatic, self-cleaning filter. The innovative spiral action facilitates high, variable suspended solid removal, and it’s designed to filter up to 100 times dirtier water while providing continuous 10 to 100-micron filtration. The filter utilizes 90% less energy compared to conventional filtration systems.

The Results

Our innovative filtration technology provided the following benefits for the customer:

• More product
• Better flavor
• Reusable solids

The Model 810 filter provided increased filtration of the pomegranate juice from 8% solids to 1% solids. It also reduced the product loss from 13% to only 1.7% per 3,000-gallon batch. Plus, the concentrated solids, once considered a waste product, are now a sellable asset to agricultural and cosmetic companies that can benefit from the texture and nutrients of the solids.

The Problem

Most automatic self-cleaning filters use automatic back-flushing or suction scanning technology, which leads to premature failure caused by biofilm growth on the screens. The continuous failure and resulting maintenance requirements cause treatment plants to remove or bypass these important protective filter systems.

The Spiral Water Solution

Spiral Water Technologies Model 810 Automatic Filter can handle secondary effluent and is not affected by biofilm growth. It consists of a patented, spiral-shaped wiper and metal filter screen that continuously cleans the screen without crossflow, backflush, or downtime. The innovative filter cleans itself over 500 times per minute, and solids get collected away from the filter at the bottom of the housing, allowing filtered water to flow continuously through the outlet.

The Results

The Model 810 filter reduced TSS with no chemicals or pollutants added to the wastewater stream. The metal filter screen and wiper only need to be replaced every two years, and maintenance routines involve quarterly cleaning and inspection.

The Problem

A wastewater operator from a Northern California brewery contacted us to address problems with their bioreactor. The back-flushing automatic filter was unable to remove suspended solids. Their secondary system was expensive to operate and incapable of handling peak solids loading. When solids spilled into the removal system, they displaced the liquid and filled the working volume of the bioreactor. The smaller working volume significantly reduced the capacity and amount of wastewater able to be treated. This inefficiency in the brewery process resulted in less beer and reduced revenue.

The Spiral Water Solution

We analyzed the brewery wastewater for Particle Size Distribution (PSD) and TSS. We installed our Model 1000 liquid/solid separator with an automated self-cleaning filter (25-micron screen) built to handle ultra-high and variable TSS. Since our filters do not need backwash to clean the filter screen, the system can concentrate solids to a high degree.

The Results

Our automatic filter unit was able to reduce Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), handle an average TSS of 1827 mg/L with peaks of 3728 mg/L, and significantly reduce TSS values in the brewery wastewater.