Abstract
Food operations use vast amounts of water. To reduce utility costs as well as concerns regarding water depletion in ecosystems, food businesses usually try to reuse their water. However, this often needs a recycling process to ensure the water is of good quality and safe to reuse in a food environment. This paper presents a case study of a grower of beansprouts and other varieties of sprouted seeds that uses six million litres of water weekly. Approximately 60% of their spent irrigation water is recycled using both 50 µm and 20 µm drum filtration. In addition, chlorine dioxide is used as part of the recycling process as a disinfectant. Our analysis demonstrated that the size of suspended solid particles in over 90% of the cumulative sample tested was smaller than the current 20 µm filter in place, highlighting that the existing system was ineffective. We, then, explored options to enhance the water recycling system of the company. After careful analysis, it was proposed to install a membrane-filtration system with ultraviolet technology to increase the finest level of filtration from the existing 20 µm to 0.45 µm absolute and sterilize any remaining bacteria. This not only improved water quality, but also allowed for the removal of chemicals from the recycling system, delivering both financial and technical improvements.
Highlights
Water is a key resource in the food sector, being paramount for crops, livestock, and cleaning processes
The purpose of this article is to assess the current spent irrigation water recycling process used in a food business, to propose a solution to improve the filtration system and, remove the requirement to treat the spent irrigation water with chemicals
The heads of operations and finance should have been included in the stakeholder meeting so that a clearer indication of available financial options could be determined. This would have allowed the project team to generate a more realistic project plan and the project manager to manage the expectations of the third-party businesses that worked alongside on the project. This project aimed to enhance the water recycling process in a food company with a view to improve the quality of the spent irrigation water
Summary
Water is a key resource in the food sector, being paramount for crops, livestock, and cleaning processes. Both water and food, along with energy, form the water–. Energy–food security nexus, meaning that these three areas usually have an effect on each other [1,2]. 70% of freshwater is currently used for crop irrigation [4]. Water use may be considerably minimized by water reuse [5,6]. Improperly treated wastewater can contain high levels of foodborne pathogens. Spent irrigation water can potentially hold high microbial counts [7]. Advanced treatment processes are essential to eliminate any potential risks of reusing water [8]. Waterquality properties to consider include colour, dissolved oxygen, electrical conductivity, hardness, pH, suspended solids, and turbidity [9]
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