Challenge
A leading Thailand-based manufacturer of hot and cold sauces and a variety of other high-quality food products, needed to expand its existing wastewater treatment plant by 360% due to an increase in their production capacity. The plant has a very limited land space and hence is seeking for a wastewater treatment technology solution that can retrofit its existing wastewater treatment to increase the plant capacity from 100 m
3/d to 360 m
3/d with the following wastewater characteristics.
| Characteristics |
Concentration (mg/L) |
| COD |
5,000 – 8,000 |
| BOD |
3,000 – 5,000 |
| TSS |
1,000 – 2,000 |
| FOG |
300 – 600 |
| TKN |
100 – 200 |
| TP |
20 – 40 |
Solution
The Owner selected Membrane Bioreactor (MBR) technology upon the recommendation by its Consultant. They engaged Crown-Tech Engineering (Thailand) Co. Ltd for the upgrade project. The existing treatment system consists of a DAF and anaerobic reactor as a pre-treatment followed by aerobic polishing with SBR. The Contractor added a bigger capacity DAF, retained the existing anaerobic reactor, increased air capacity of the aerobic reactor, and converted the existing SBR with two Supratec MicroClear
® MBR trains, all within the very limited plant footprint. Each Supratec MicroClear
® MBR train is equipped with one MX384 module, designed to treat 120 m
3/d, with an allowance for another identical train to be added in the future for treating the maximum flow of 360 m
3/d.
Results
The retrofit solution allows the plant to increase treatment plant capacity by 360% and allow the production plant to expand, all within its very limited plant footprint. The MBR effluent (COD <30 mg/L, BOD<5 mg/L, TSS<2 mg/L, NH3-N<1 mg/L, and FOG<1 mg/L) consistently meets and exceeds the stringent effluent discharge regulation, allowing the plant to do direct discharge and reuse partial effluent for toilet flushing and floor cleaning.
