Challenge

Grandor Juice, a premium brand of Unidrink AG located in Hitzkirch, Switzerland was previously using an anaerobic reactor for their wastewater treatment system.  However due to the inability to meet discharge requirements, a new system was required.

The wastewater quality and composition at the Granador Juice manufacturing facility varied widely due to the type of products processed.  With the widely varying production levels, the wastewater treatment solution needed to comply with the requirements without operational complexity.

Solution

To meet the project challenges, the AGAR® MBBR was selected for installation.  This innovative fixed-film moving bed bioreactor process uses thousands of special biomass carriers designed to create a large surface area for biofilm growth - enhancing the biological wastewater treatment process without increasing the plant footprint.  The wastewater plant was designed with a typical chemical oxygen demand (COD) of 1000 mg/l of flow to an anaerobic reactor, where about 70 percent of the COD is removed.  The effluent from the anaerobic reactor passes through a single stage AGAR® MBBR system for aerobic polishing.  The system is filled to 54 percent with biomass carriers and operates as a roughing filter, in which attached growth of biofilm on the carriers is responsible for the removal of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) with no circulation of activated sludge.

Result

Despite the seasonal variation in wastewater composition, the plant has been achieving higher efficiencies than required.  The plant has been in operation since July 2004 and has consistently met effluent quality requirements.

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