Veolia Water Technologies & Solutions

Comprehensive solution enables low water use ratio at India’s largest beverage plant

Beverage Processing

Challenge

  • Location: Southern India
  • Capacity: 1560 m3 /day
  • Commissioned: 2015
  • Technology: Multigrade filter (MGF), ultrafiltration (UF), activated carbon filter (ACF), reverse osmosis (RO), backwash recovery, membrane bioreactor (MBR)

In building India’s largest beverage plant, a global food & beverage company sought a complete water management solution. The solution needed to showcase the plant as a global demonstration site for world class water efficiency and the lowest litre/litre (L/L) value of beverages. 

Solution

Veolia designed a solution that included a water treatment plant, effluent treatment and sewage treatment plant, including a backwash recovery system, and RO reject recovery system.

The raw water treatment plant consists of a multimedia filter (MMF) followed by ZeeWeed* 1500 UF. ZeeWeed utilizes "outside-in" flow through a hollow fiber membrane that has a nominal and absolute pore size of 0.02 microns. With ZeeWeed, the removal of turbidity, pathogens, giardia, and cryptosporidium does not require process chemicals. ZeeWeed produces consistent, exceptional quality treated water.

The UF filtered water is passed through an ACF for the removal of color, odor and any dissolved organics present in the water, then it is passed through a UV sterilizer. Chemically dosed feedwater flows to the inlet of the micron cartridge filter, water from the outlet of the individual cartridge filter flows to the suction high pressure pumps, and pressurized feed passes through an array of RO membranes.

The backwash recovery system uses submerged ZeeWeed 500 membranes, reinforced hollow fiber UF membranes with a nominal pore size of 0.04 µm. The membrane fiber has a tensile strength close to 100 lbs and is highly resistant to chemicals, including acids, bases, and chlorine, which are all used for membrane cleaning.

The RO reject water has high TDS and reactive silica so recycling reject water is passed through a clarifier and MMF, followed by Veolia’s’ electro dialysis reversal (EDR) technology. Its product water is used back in the raw water tank with a 90% recovery.

The effluent and sewage treatment plant feature MBR technology; in the ETP, this is followed by a partial RO system. The ZeeWeed MBR process is technology that consists of a suspended growth biological reactor integrated with a UF membrane system that utilizes the ZeeWeed hollow-fiber membrane.

The RO system to treat the MBR permeate is designed for a wastewater application with stage wise cleaning. The MBR permeate of 250 m3 /day is pumped from the treated water tank through the RO feed pump. The system is designed for 75% recovery to yield permeate of 187.5 m3 /day.

Result

Veolia provided a complete water management solution with high efficiency and the lowest L/L ratio in the beverage sector. This plant operates with the highest recovery system (98.5%) and lowest ZLD (26m3 /day) installed by this food & beverage company. It is a repeatable scheme and the first of its kind in India.

To learn how Veolia can help solve your wastewater challenges, contact your Veolia representative