Water treatment at slaughterhouse

Slaughterhouses are in high demand for effective wastewater solutions and sludge management. Owatec has a solution with optimized processes that removes harmful substances and unwanted coloring.

According to the Finnish Environment Institute, the food and beverage industry is one of the biggest reasons for harmful nutrients and impurities in the environment. For example, in 2014, the industry caused almost 650 tons of wastewater in Finland. Since the load has been growing, effective wastewater treatment and sludge management is understood as mandatory at sites where the processes leave wastewater with high quantities of impurities.

One of Owatec’s main objectives is to deliver environmentally friendly and effective water treatment and sludge management solutions for sites like slaughterhouses and fish processing plants. Research began over ten years ago, and now active projects can be found in several locations.

Case study at Finnish Livestock and Pork production site

Meat production, which belongs to the food industry, is the most significant source of nutrient load in the environment, especially regarding phosphorus and nitrogen. A local slaughterhouse in Finland is handling over 100t kg of animal origin daily, and before the case study, the wastewater streams contained nitrogen 233 mg/l and phosphorus 26 mg/l.

After carefully made laboratory testing, full-scale piloting was launched with the following solutions:

The current results in reductions during chemical optimization

  • COD 85%
  • BOD 83%
  • Phosphorus 61,5%
  • Nitrogen 72%
  • Solids (GF/A) 86,%

This project is under development, and the complete reference will be published in summer 2023 after finalizing the wastewater and sludge management processes. If you are eager to know more, drop a message to info@owatec.fi

Jar tests for optimized chemical consumption.