Wastewater treatment of sugar and sugar industries

The white crystalline substance that we know as sugar is a synthetic and processed substance that is often obtained from sugar cane or sugar beet. The sugar in sugar cane and sugar beet is refined in the factory and converted into pure sucrose after all the salts, vitamins, proteins, enzymes and other useful nutrients are separated. Sugar beet contains 70% water, which is separated as waste water in different stages of sugar production. The process of sugar production begins with the harvesting of sugar beets at the end of September, so the wastewater treatment of sugar and sugar industries can be either done seasonally or all the seasons.

Quality characteristics of sugar industry wastewater:

As it is known, sugar beets must be completely free of foreign substances, so their heads and tails are beaten before entering the mill and the beets washed with water. The wastewater produced in this part should not to be combined with the wastewater produced in the main process line. Because it can be reuse to washing the new beet again and again. In addition to the production wastewater of the main process line, they have condenser water and cooling water overflow, which can be directed to the purified outlet with proper management. Since lime is used to coagulate the colloidal particles of the syrup, the wastewater of the sugar industry is alkaline. Wastewater from sugar and sugar industries has a significant amount of calcium, nitrogen and phosphorus, which should be considered in the design of the treatment plant. In the table below, the characteristics of sugar and sugar industry wastewater are roughly stated:

Wastewater treatment strategy of sugar and sugar industries

The sugar industries are among the industries with a lot of wastewater, as a result, the treatment of sugar industry wastewater is involved with problems such as high construction, maintenance costs, operational problems during the factory’s operation, but according to the strategy of the Pasenco company, with use of resource management in water used in the process of the production line, the pollution load is controlled and reduced from the source. Thus many problems and costs for treating this wastewater can be decrease. In order to further investigate the importance of this issue, data from the factories of the sugar and sugar industries with which we had the honor of cooperation have been collected and the following table has been prepared:

In the table below, a comparison of sugar industry wastewater treatment without the implementation of The Pasenco company’s strategy and with the implementation of our company’s strategy has been made in terms of wastewater volume and pollution load:

As can be seen, the difference is very significant and the need to follow and implement the wastewater treatment strategy of sugar and sugar industries is very necessary and important.

Selection of the wastewater treatment method of sugar and sugar industries:

Considering the characteristics of sugar and sugar industries’ wastewater and the high COD level and the presence of phosphorus and nitrogen ions in it, it is necessary to use both aerobic and anaerobic biological wastewater treatment processes to reduce the residence time of wastewater in aeration ponds. Also, in order to reduce the implementation capacity of the project and as a result to reduce its implementation costs, earthen lagoons can be used before the biological treatment of wastewater. Correct selection of wastewater treatment strategy and technique is very important for the success of sugar industry wastewater treatment.

The Pasenco company with more than 20 years of successful experience in providing engineering services related to the design, consulting and implementation of wastewater treatment systems for sugar and sugar industries, along with the full guarantee of obtaining environmental standards, accompanies you in this important matter. If you need free expert advice, you can contact our experts through the communication methods mentioned on this page.