New wastewater treatment promises processing cost cuts
and wine industries millions in processing costs.
The R&D scheme, entitled TELEMAC, has developed remote and local monitoring control solutions that will enable industries to benefit from anaerobic waste treatment while minimising costs and complications.
The research team focused on applying this technology in the spirits and wine industries; the trials are taking place at a tequila manufacturer in Mexico, and at a wine cooperative and a brewery in Spain.
Following these trials, extensive testing will be carried out next year in preparation for commercialisation, which could potentially herald a major boost for the use of anaerobic treatment, a cleaner and more efficient way of removing concentrated biodegradable industrial waste than traditional methods.
"We expect the market to really start to grow over the coming years, to the point where within the next decade anaerobic processes could be used to treat urban wastewater and produce energy for cities," said TELEMAC scientific coordinator Olivier Bernard at INRIA in France.
"Anaerobic digestion consists of a complex ecosystem of bacteria to break down waste. It is faster than traditional aerobic processes for complex substrates, less sludge is produced and the main advantage is that it produces methane which can be burnt for energy."
Bernard believes that the TELEMAC system ultimately saves money for users, making anaerobic treatment a more attractive option. The research team claims that initial investments in anaerobic plants can be recovered within three to five years due to the energy produced from the burning of the methane gas.
The method has been relatively underused in food and beverage production, however, because of its complexity and instability. The slightest perturbation of the ecosystem can bring the process to a halt.
To address this problem, the TELEMAC scientists worked to develop a comprehensive monitoring and control system to ensure optimal functioning of the treatment process.
TELEMAC employs a series of robust and inexpensive hardware sensors to provide information on different compounds in the treatment facility combined with software sensors to predict unknown variables. This data is managed firstly by a local automated system, which can carry out minor adjustments, and secondly by a remote, Internet-accessible database at the TELEMAC control centre, which will alert experts to serious problems at any connected treatment plant.
"Many companies requiring treatment facilities are small and wastewater management is not their principal activity," said Bernard. "It would be too costly for them to employ an onsite expert so therefore remote monitoring is an efficient solution."
The TELEMAC project, whose initial phase ran from January 2001 until August 2004, is supported by the IST Programme of the European Union. Over €3.6 billion has been spent on thousands of near-market projects by the European Commission's Information Society Technologies (IST) research initiative with more investment planned for the future.
The food-processing industry has always been a major water user. Water is used as an ingredient, an initial and intermediate cleaning source, an efficient transportation conveyor of raw materials, and the principal agent used in sanitising plant machinery and areas.
The UK's Environment Agency estimates that the British food industry alone consumes approximately 900 megalitres of water each day, enough to supply almost three-quarters of all customers' needs in London daily. Huge volumes of water are transformed into vapour during the food production process, while a significant percentage is discharged as wastewater.
Although water use will always be a part of the food-processing industry, it has become the principal target for pollution prevention and source reduction practices.
For example, Kraft Foods recently commissioned an innovative food wastewater treatment facility at a US cheese plant, which it claims will reduce waste by more than 90 per cent.
The water treatment and cheese whey anaerobic treatment system, designed and operated by Ecovation, will also allow for the installation of new equipment to capture and use the waste treatment gases to generate electricity.
