As lowering our overall environmental impact becomes increasingly important, there is growing pressure on industry to reduce the amount of process wastewater that’s discharged to sewers. Having to treat higher volumes of this wastewater can, however, be expensive.
Most industries have already reduced their water consumption to a minimum. However, even with the implementation of efficient clean-in-place (CIP) systems and the ability to recycle detergents a number of times, large volumes of caustic wastewater are often generated.
With repeated use, cleaning solutions — which mainly consist of a 2–4 percent sodium hydroxide solution — become loaded with impurities, such as proteins, sugars and colorants, and must subsequently be changed. However, using a nanofiltration (NF) plant from GEA, these solutions can be cleaned and regenerated for continued use, thereby saving money and avoiding disposal issues.
The regeneration of these CIP solutions is achieved using membrane filtration at the normal operating temperature of the fluid (up to 70 °C). The contaminated CIP solution is fed into the main storage tank via a bypass system and subjected to ultrafiltration (UF). This removes suspended colloidal impurities.
Often, CIP solutions can be directly treated in a nanofiltration (NF) system to remove color and low-molecular weight impurities. This concentrates the impurities in the retentate, thereby allowing the purified caustic solution permeate to pass through at the same concentration and temperature as the feed.
Benefits and advantages
- Reduced chemical loss saves money and extends application intervals
- Lower cost to neutralize wastewater
- Reduced energy costs owing to high-temperature filtration
- Plug & Play design for easy implementation into existing CIP systems
- Standardized modular design to reduce investment costs and improve your return on investment
Downloads
Related Products
Custom-Designed Filtration Plants
GEA custom designs membrane filtration systems that best utilize the technologies of microfiltration, ultrafiltration, nanofiltration, or reverse osmosis for each customer's specific application.
Condensate Polisher
Condensate from evaporation plants is used as boiler feed water, process, cooling, and rinsing water or is directly discharged into a drainage ditch. For this purpose, the condensate must be purified. Impurities in the condensate can be removed by membrane filtration, in the particular case by reverse osmosis, and high condensate qualities can be...
Beer Recovery Unit
GEA cross-flow filtration with robust ceramic membranes are used for the effective recovery of beer from tank bottoms. Modular plants are supplied on compact skids in three standard sizes with processing capacities of approximately 250 hl, 500 hl and 1000 hl per day depending on the dry solids content of the product.
GEA AromaPlus Membrane Dealcoholization Unit
Supporting small to large feed rates, and configurable for both batch and continuous processes, the dedicated AromaPlus system is built on our reverse osmosis (RO) membrane filtration technology.
GEA Insights
The breakthrough that changed spray drying
In 1976, NIRO engineers responded to a competitive challenge by rethinking what spray drying could do. Their idea became the multi-stage dryer MSD. Fifty years later, the same fundamental principle helps turn liquids into the powders used in essential nutrition products and important medicines around the world. Refined through decades of engineering expertise, customer insight and continuous development, MSD is a story of innovation with lasting impact.
Beyond the machine: unlocking better plant performance
An efficient machine does not automatically make an efficient factory. Real improvement often starts by looking beyond individual equipment and understanding how processes, energy systems and operating decisions affect one another. It’s a holistic approach designed to uncover opportunities that might otherwise be missed.
How a valve reshapes the way food and drinks are made
In food and beverage plants, valves are commonly operated using compressed air. GEA Hydract® Actuation Technology moves valves with water instead, in a closed, digitally controlled circuit. The result is a valve that can be held exactly in place and steered in fine-tuned steps. This results in lower energy use and greater control.
