A private maker of potato chip snack foods processes 300 tons per day of pre-washed potato. The factory produces 75 tons of chips per day. For potato starch, a 1 percent effluent feed will produce a snow like solids discharge at 55 percent ds.

Before collaborating with us, effluence was taken away at a cost of $45 per ton. Suspended solids discharge to the city was typically 1,000 to 1,400 ppm. The effluent costs were $3.2/m3, an expense of around $64,000 a month.

Solutions

We installed an automatic centrifuge with a macerator in the feed line. All effluent goes through the system at 55 m3/hr. The decanter centrifuge produces 30 tons per day of solids at 50 percent moisture. This decanter centrifuge is ideal for potato wastewater, starch dewatering and even mud dewatering .

Results

The separated solids cake from the decanter centrifuge is sold as cattle feed at $8 per ton. The suspended solids discharge to the city was reduced to less than 300 ppm, and the effluent costs were reduced to $1.6/m3 or $32,000 per month — a 50 percent reduction in expenses.