How a family owned, niche wastewater treatment company is transforming meat processing wastewater treatment
Melbourne, Australia. April 2024.
The sight, the smell, the mess - and perhaps the hidden environmental damage. Once seen or smelt, it can’t be forgotten - particularly for anyone not used to the high strength, raw wastewater that flows from the operations of slaughterhouses globally - also known as meatpackers and abattoirs depending on your geographical location.
Waterform Technologies see the unseen in wastewater - a rich resource for pure water, energy, fertiliser and other useful by-products, and their mission of “Bringing extraordinary thinking to help solve complex wastewater challenges for forward thinking food processing companies” sums up Waterform’s approach to enhancing business continuity, sustainability and profitability for their clients in the meat processing industry.
The reality of abattoir and slaughterhouse wastewater - it’s confronting.
For the team at Waterform Technologies, a family owned company based in Victoria, Australia, that maintains a niche focus in the meat industry, abattoir wastewater represented a unique opportunity. They have been able to leverage their well known entrepreneurship and global connections to technology partners, to develop a robust solution for tackling a new twofold reality for the meat industry - a heightened level of scrutiny and enforced compliance to regulatory standards on one hand, while also a renewed focus on being more sustainable at board level on the other hand.
Traditionally, the industry has relied on plentiful land to build anaerobic lagoons, with the addition of aerobic treatment in some cases, to deal with the bulk of the wastewater ‘load’ - known as BOD & COD, while still leaving a portion of nutrients in the discharge water, all the while having tons and tons of sludge accumulating at the base of the lagoons.
Whilst these lagoon based system still provide a useful level of treatment and biogas yield, the need to go a few steps further and meet strict Total Nitrogen and Total Phosphorus limits within the final treated effluent, and a desire to reuse the purified wastewater within the processing facilities, has spawned the development of a game changing, at-scale tank based treatment process that Waterform now market under the ultraBiox-ZR™ brand.
The secret sauce. Without giving away the real inside story, the first thing prospective clients notice with the ultraBiox-ZR™ design is the low footprint, the low operating costs, no odour and the remarkable effluent quality. This has been achieved through a global first - the adaption of an attached growth process, combined with suspended activated sludge, for resounding stability under all conditions and paired with a proprietary membrane process that is used to not only provide exceptional quality effluent, but is used as a key component of process control within the biological reactors, to adapt to varying influent conditions in real-time.
“We exist in an conservative industry, and it’s always a challenge to move clients forward into a better, modern way of doing things” says Tim Way, Sales Director at Waterform. “Our meat industry clients know we will do what we say and we are the only company truly embedded within their industry - we understand the capex challenges, the regulatory challenges and the market conditions”. “At the end of the day, we only want to see our client’s businesses grow stronger, and dealing with wastewater properly is a key component to success today”.
Waterform is working closely with industry bodies such as AMPC to educate and inspire the meat industry to look at wastewater as a profound resource.
Tailored for the beef, lamb, chicken, pork and fish industries that have varying degrees of animals fats from rendering waste streams, proteins, solids, complex dissolved organics and high salt, the ultraBiox-ZR™ process is being rolled out a multiple sites across Australia in 2024 and 2025, with Tim saying that “the continued standardization of the process will allow us to open the solution up to wider markets and regions in due course- an exciting development for our company”.
Sustainability & Bioenergy. One of the most impactful benefits of the ultraBiox-ZR™ process, is that it acts also as a first step towards the complete ultraBiox-ZERO™ solution, whereby byproduct solids can be collected and fed into a high rate solids anaerobic digestor, to produce high quality biomethane. With a typical 1.5ML/day ultraBiox-ZR™ reactor capacity, Tim says that the bioenergy yield will not only power the treatment plant entirely, but be able to export up to 80% of total energy produced as gas or electricity.
As far as circular design principles and renewable energy, the ultraBiox-ZERO™ solution further enhances the reputation of meat industry processors who, in the eyes of Tim, have been unfairly targeted in recent times. “Not only is the meat industry a key part of any economy, it also provides essential and healthy protein for 95% of consumers, while the source animals, as part of the food chain, play a key role within the carbon cycle with pasture regeneration being a key function as an example”.
“We’re deeply committed to this essential industry and are grateful to be able to contribute to the sustainable mission of forward thinking meat businesses”.
A goal for a better water future has Waterform taking concrete action to assist water intensive meat processors to become some of the most sustainable corporations that exist today.
The process. Knowing the complexity of undertaking a wastewater transformation, Waterform are working with engineering and advisory groups representing different disciplines to help bring everything together for clients, who can be concerned about the seeming hurdles. “Once clients can see that we have completed projects at scale, we’ve navigated the regulatory pathways, and can assist with long term operation, any sense of trepidation turns to excitement, because of the real benefits that a ultraBiox-ZR™ solution will bring” says Tim. To this end, Waterform are engaging with clients at a very basic concept stage to develop the business case and validate the opportunity before any serious investment is undertaken. “Our Solve, Support, Sustain approach really helps de-risk the process and gives clients confidence in the outcome”.
For a family business tucked away in Central Victoria, Australia, the impact on the multi-billion dollar meat industry has only just begun - and it’s already outsized. A unique approach, a unique product and unique know-how to boot.
Ready to transform your wastewater? Contact Waterform Technologies via email: hello@waterform.com.au, or telephone: +61 3 5447 3045