Food & Beverage

Nitrogen-rich compounds, such as proteins and amino acids, are common in food and beverage plants’ wastewater. Removal of ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates is an important and difficult process to maintain. Sources of nitrification problems include environmental factors, toxicity, solids washout, and loading variation, but EnviZyme can help. We offer solutions to:

• Make the nitrification and denitrification processes more robust, enabling on-site plants to withstand higher loading
• Shorten the on-site recovery time after process upsets
• Reduce the impact of shock loads on effluent quality
• Eliminate ammonia-related permit violations, limits for which are becoming more stringent
• Increase the lifespan of critical pieces of infrastructure by preventing ammonia-related corrosion

Oxygen demand serves as the main benchmark for measuring organic pollution in effluent. EnviZyme offers products and technical expertise to target a wide range of organics found in a variety of food and beverage clusters for:

• Compliance with tightening discharge limits and elimination of permit violations
• Enhanced plant stability for less frequent and less severe upsets
• Proper floc formation and improved settleability
• Improved performance in cold or variable weather and for highly complex industrial waste streams

Fats, oils, and grease (FOG) are heavily generated by food and beverage processing plants by animal fats and vegetable oils. EnviZyme products provide the right microorganisms to:

• Reduce permit violations, even with tightening regulations
• Comply with receiving municipality limits
• Degrade grease caps and high levels of FOG
• Maintain free-flowing systems without buildup or blockages
• Minimize sensor fouling, foaming, and filamentous bulking
• Decrease operating time and costs from skimming
• Safeguard dewatering, which can become compromised if FOG becomes entrained in the floc

Foaming is a multifaceted problem with several potential triggers—like overabundance of filaments, surfactants, or EPS—and consequences. EnviZyme offers the expertise and products to correct foaming as efficiently as possible to:

• Maintain proper floc formation and improve settleability
• Keep parameters like TSS and BOD in check, along with optimum solids inventory
• Protect oxygen compressors from foam entry, which can be a fire risk
• Minimize impact on costs from skimming, hauling, and synthetic defoamers
• Avoid additional housekeeping and malodor

A well-developed microbial community can take weeks or months to become established with only native microorganisms, and to operate as efficiently as possible, it is important to have the right microorganisms. EnviZyme offers products to:

• Allow the start-up or upset recovery period to happen faster and with greater predictability
• Avoid production delays for industrial plants
• Jumpstart or recover the ability to remove organics within the designed hydraulic retention time
• Foster formation of good floc that settle well
• Eliminate reliance on seed sludge, which can require an adaptation period or contain filamentous organisms

Treatment plants require a delicate balance of nutrients in order to support a healthy biomass and achieve optimal efficiency. EnviZyme offers products that provide essential micronutrients to supplement the basic metabolic needs of wastewater biology and ensure an optimized nutrient (C:N:P) ratio.

• Stabilizes biological populations and nutrient-deficient conditions
• Mitigates filamentous bulking associated with nutrient deficiencies
• Reduces plant sensitivity and aids in smooth start-up
• Increases and sustains the biomass bacterial activity
• Supports COD/BOD removal

Foul odors can be generated by countless processes within food and beverage processing and have a direct impact on local communities. They can even be subject to regulation. The source of nuisance odors can be a complex variety of sources. EnviZyme products:

• Address challenges associated with large volumes of organic materials like food scraps and on-site waste treatment
• Target odors biologically by metabolizing the odor molecules themselves, while also degrading the source of malodors
• Are effective against sulfur-based odors like hydrogen sulfide and mercaptans, which are detectable at extremely low concentrations
• Are effective against volatile fatty acids (valeric, butyric, and acetic acids)
• Provide continuous, long-term odor control and prevention

Depending on location, food and beverage manufacturers may have costly and limited options for sludge disposal, especially as stricter regulations necessitate higher standards of treatment. EnviZyme offers both enzymatic and biological solutions to:

• Prevent overcrowding of tanks as sludge volume accumulates
• Improve odor and aesthetics of the aquaculture facility
• Enhance sludge treatment and improve dewatering performance
• Reduce sludge volume for lower handling or disposal costs
• Recover capacity of lagoons and defer costly dredging
• Comply with regulations and eliminate fines or legal consequences
• Lower operational costs for chemical additives, energy, and labor