Innovating wastewater treatment to solve sector issues

Aerofloat’s AeroCLEAR was developed by the Aerofloat’s engineers to help microbreweries maintain wastewater standards, of which each state and territory has differing requirements, by innovating its existing AeroDAF technology.

Michael Anderson, Aerofloat’s general manager of engineering, said the company’s extensive history working with food manufacturers put the company in an ideal position to work with microbreweries to address the need.

While the AeroDAF was designed to target higher flows, this piece was too large and expansive for the microbrewery sector.

Microbreweries often require a wastewater treatment system that provides solids removal along with pH correction.

“It’s essentially a grease fat conversion with a pH loop,” said Anderson.

“We do lots of small food and beverage and microbrewery pH collection and solid removal systems.”

This experience and expertise in the sector are what allowed Aerofloat to successfully innovate AeroCLEAR.

“If you think about larger food and beverage manufacturers, they obviously need trade waste systems with DAFs screening and full chemical treatment and removal of all solids and ph. correction before it goes to the sewer. We have done lots of those,” said Anderson.

“But there’s a lot of small customers that have low flows and what they can do is just have a flow metre with a grease trap. A lot of times that adheres to the trade waste standards.”

The experience and expertise of the Aerofloat team also extends to working with clients on how best to address their needs, and standard requirements.

“We start a dialogue to determine what it is they specifically need for that area, because every council and water utility has a different set of requirements, depending on what state you’re in,” Anderson said.

“So, we do our due diligence on where they are, who they are, the timing of their project, and then we have some recommendations.”

The AeroCLEAR solution is perfectly suited to customers who don’t fit the high flow range but do require some sort of pH correction and solids removal.

“Some water authorities - like Sydney Water - created a trade waste agreement specifically for craft breweries, while other water authorities categorised them as industrial waste customers.

We looked at all of the trade waste agreements applicable to craft breweries from different water authorities, and we realised we could satisfy all trade waste agreements with one product, which was the AeroClear” said Anderson.

“The AeroClear is a sealed clarifier. It utilises the vessel from our AeroDAF product, which is the smallest and most compact high-rate small DAF you can get on the market.”

One of the key differences between the AeroDAF and AeroCLEAR is that with a DAF the solids are floated float to the top and then pushed out and then clean water out is ejected from the bottom, whereas with the AeroCLEAR the wastewater is taken from the top and the solids from the bottom.

“You have a wastewater stream, no chemicals, and pump water in at a slow rate and let the solids settle,” said Anderson.

“That way it’s a nice sealed up and odourless process. After the clean water drops it falls into a small tank where we pH correct and then it goes into the sewer.

“We have found every microbrewery we have done still fall into the category of remove solids as best you can, and

Thanks to this observation, the AeroCLEAR has proven to be a perfect solution for this requirement.

“Aerofloat offers unique and customisable solutions for these smaller operators where a grease trap won’t suffice,” said Anderson.

All in all, Aerfloat’s offerings promise to reduce suspended solids (SS), chemical oxygen demand (COD), biological oxygen demand (BOD), to meet or exceed discharge requirements, and the required pH correction.

“We work at creating something at a price point that solves a problem that’s there for customers that may not have budgeted for the expense but are required to nonetheless,” said Anderson.

“We help them come up with solutions to suit their budget and we can even supply designs or provide pieces to help solve those problems for them.” F