Large California Produce Company Benefits from Seaco Water Treatment Solution

Executive Summary A large processing facility owned by a leader in the North American produce industry required a time-sensitive solution to reduce the BOD and suspended solids in their recycled washout water over their existing treatment system. Seaco Technologies completed a total system diagnosis, identified opportunities to improve the existing system and designed a binary clarification treatment program that - reduced overall recycled water loading- afforded the ability to obtain and maintain accurate critical control treatment residuals in the recycled and down-stream process systems.

CHALLENGES Prior to implementation of Seaco’s binary treatment system, the customer was utilizing an alternative supplier’s clarification treatment products and methodology, resulting in turbidity breakthrough in treated water and significantly elevated chemical usage. Additionally, the flocculating agent in the secondary treatment stage caused considerable water retention in the resultant solids; increasing dry-out time, labor and trucking costs for disposal. The customer required a quick response and correction of the issue as they anticipated incoming product loads to contain higher dirt load, due to regional rainfall and harvesting location containing elevated clay-content. In previous years this particular harvesting region considerably increased water loading in both the recycled water as well as the down-stream processes. Consequently, the use of an oxidant to counter the effects increased significantly across the facility, with associated increase in cost. For this reason, Seaco diagnosed correctly that any new solution would need to sustain successful results irrespective of varying water quality and constituents, without continuous optimization.

The Seaco Solution Seaco Technologies designed and delivered a treatment program that successfully met all the customer’s requirements, while ensuring YOY operational savings -

• Reduced turbidity from 1370 NTU to 25-34 NTU at recirculation flow rate of 7400gpm.
• Chemical cost savings due to accurate product selection and optimized treatment plan – Oxidant 38% and polymer 12%
• Consistent residuals throughout year during process soil loading changes from various harvesting areas.
• Reduced water retention in settled solids – OPEX savings of 64% in pond cleanout operations for the customer. Collateral Benefits and Future Plans

The customer realized a significant increase in overall system capabilities due to the reduction in water loading. This allowed them to increase production operations by 30%, by adding a third shift, that was previously dedicated to facility maintenance and system clean-outs to remove the carry-over loading downstream.