New technology can reduce the food industry’s water consumption

Worldwide, the food industry is among the industries that use the most water. A new Danish project will show that it can be done better.

By updating a well-known technology, the consumption of waste water at one of the Nordic region’s largest producers of fishmeal and fish oil, TripleNine Group A/S, can be at least halved. And best of all, the solution can be implemented in other food companies.

“At the Danish Technological Institute, it is our most important task to bridge the latest knowledge and practical technology that makes a difference for business and society. In TripleNine’s case, we have used our knowledge of water technology to develop an innovative solution that can both significantly reduce water and energy consumption and contribute to better utilisation of resource-containing residual streams in production”, says Project Manager Michelle Lison Rebsdorf, Danish Technological Institute.

Danish partnership initiates change

The project was established through the Danish partnership DRIP, which works to improve water efficiency in the food industry, as TripleNine sought alternative technologies to better utilise both the water and the resources it contains.

Jacob Rasmussen, Energy and Environmental Manager at TripleNine, says: “We have benefited greatly from the DRIP partnership. Access to knowledge institutes and their partners has opened some opportunities we would not otherwise have”.

Water purification through microbubbles

The cleaning solution, developed by the Danish Technological Institute and the company BIO-AQUA, is based on advanced flotation technology. It causes larger fish residues and oil to accumulate in the surface in a foam fraction. The foam is scraped off and led into production. Thus, the water can be recycled many more times than before.

Great market potential in the feed and food industry

As the innovative cleaning technology can be transferred to other types of companies, it is expected to have great market potential, also abroad according to Erik Jessen Jürgensen, BIO-AQUA Director: “The concept will be attractive to many companies in the feed and food industry. This is because it can both help to significantly reduce their consumption of process water and to better utilise the resources in the water. We generally see a great demand for technologies for better and more profitable utilization of residual flows in production”.

The InnoFlot lighthouse project is a collaboration between TripleNine Denmark, the Danish Technological Institute, BIO-AQUA A/S, Insatech A/S and Lemvig Vand & Spildevand A/S.

Source: Danish Technological Institute