Wastewater contract for Quorn plant

Marlow Foods’ Teesside is investing £150m in production of the protein-rich meat substitute over the next five years due to fast-growing global demand. The investment will include wastewater treatment equipment to support expansion of the Quorn production line.

Richard Smith, process engineer at Marlow Foods said, “This is an exciting time for Marlow Foods as we expand our site and workforce and increase production of Quorn. Making sure we meet our environmental obligations is very important to us and our world-leading brands.”

Two Lamella Separator tanks and chemical dosing equipment will be supplied, which will also help the Quorn facility meet a tighter discharge consent for phosphate, nitrogen and suspended solids  issued by the Environment Agency to ensure the site is compliant with the European Water Framework Directive. The equipment will handle a maximum flow rate of 54m³/hour and a maximum of 400mg/l total suspended solids.

Trials

Andrew Baird, technical director said, “Marlow Foods undertook independent trials on lamella separator tanks and decided they were the best solution for this fast-growing site.

“We were one of only two lamella separator manufacturers recommended by independent consultant Andy Pitt, who has a long-standing relationship with Marlow Foods and consults for Scottish Water. We won the bid because overall as we offered the best competitive value.”

Small footprint

Lamella separator tanks are widely used to help in removing suspended solids from municipal and industrial wastewater. They are an ideal solution where space is at a premium because the physical footprint is as low as 10% of that required for a conical sedimentation tank.

Continued research and development has led to the improved design of the Lamella Separator which results in up to 95% efficiency. The system now benefits from intake via a central channel, allowing a calmed, even flow to travel through both inclined plate packs.

Discharge is via a full length v-notch channel which sits on either side of the Lamella Separator. This significantly reduces the outfall velocity and results in a lower volume of suspended solids being retained in the final discharge.

High standard

Andrew Haywood, utilities sales manager said, “As a framework supplier to many of the UK’s water utilities,  rigorous high standards in wastewater equipment is required. We have recently worked closely on projects with Anglian Water, Scottish Water and United Utilities, a record that was valued by the client.”

Along with the Lamella Separator tanks, a supply a flow splitter, poly-dosing unit for liquid polymer and a polyaluminium chloride (PAC) dosing unit with a duty dosing pump.

Onsite training and commissioning of the plant will be carried out to ensure operators have a full understanding of the plant’s products and processes prior to handover.