Meat processing: Green energy from wastewater

doi:10.1016/S0015-1882(12)70147-7

Filtration + Separation

Volume 49, Issue 3, May–June 2012, Pages 44-45

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0015-1882(12)70147-7 Get rights and content

The meat processing industry is currently entering new territory as governments worldwide introduce carbon pricing regimes and expand community awareness about which industries are posing environmental challenges in terms of air and water purity. Jean Pierre Ombregt of Global Water Engineering and Michael Bambridge of CST Wastewater Solutions explain the issues to Filtration+Separation.

Section snippets

Water use

Elevated consumption of high-quality water, which is an important element of food safety, is often characteristic of the meat processing industry. Water is used for watering and washing livestock, cleaning vehicles, de-hairing and rind treatment of pigs, rinsing carcasses and by-products, and cleaning and disinfecting equipment and process areas.

Emissions to air

Odour may often be a significant form of air pollution in meat processing. Major process odour sources include singeing, scalding, lairage, wastewater

Opportunities

Ombregt and Bambridge highlight that in fact the problems of wastewater, emissions and energy consumption also present an opportunity to use the huge but often hidden potential of wastewater as a source of renewable energy. This has been demonstrated by partners Global Water Engineering, a leader in clean water and green energy solutions, and CST Wastewater Solutions, a leading wastewater solution group which also employs GWE technology on major projects. GWE has successfully built more than

Power from effluent

Closed anaerobic reactors generate large quantities of methane (CH₄) from the organic materials in the wastewater that can diminish or even completely replace the use of fossil fuels in the production process.

To bring some perspective to the value, one ton of COD (chemical oxygen demand) digested anaerobically can result in 350Nm³ of methane, equivalent to 0.15MW of power.

For specific industry applications with high organic loads, enough biogas can be generated to fully cover a production

Conclusion

Ombregt and Bambridge conclude by pointing out that environmental initiatives such as green energy generation from wastewater treatment do not always get as much attention as the more traditional renewables, such as solar and wind. But in fact there is a huge, often hidden, potential in using wastewater as a source of renewable energy.

Despite surging energy prices and ever-spreading carbon taxes to counter global warming, many primary processing industries are still pouring potential profit

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ApplicationMeat processing: Green energy from wastewater