Stabilising Complex F&B Wastewater and Unlocking Water Reuse

Food and beverage processors generate highly variable wastewater from cleaning, product changeovers and batch production. These streams are rich in organics, fats and solids, making them costly to treat and increasingly difficult to keep within tightening discharge limits. Aquature’s BASE platform provides a compact, modular solution that stabilises high-COD streams, recovers valuable organics and enables safe water reuse.

An international malting company considered upgrading their wastewater treatment to enable water reuse applications throughout their sites, tackling regional water stress and amplifying their independence from external water supply. Pairing their existing aerobic treatment technology with reverse osmosis could achieve that goal, but would incur additional installation and operation costs with only the strategic value of independent water supply through reuse as added value. This is where Aquature came in to offer generating revenue instead of costs while achieving their water reuse goals.

At a Glance

The Challenge

• Malting process wastewaters contain high concentrations of organic residues such as sugars from germination and steeping
• Achieving cost-effective water reuse in regulatory compliance without increasing operational burden
• Limited onsite capacity for additional tanks or complex new treatment steps

For this malt processor, wastewater was a growing operational and regulatory risk that they wanted to transform into a strategic value as reusable water, while reaping the benefit of generating additional revenue and energy from the wastewater.

Aquature’s Solution

Aquature deploys a modular BASE unit downstream of existing primary screening and equalisation:

• Treat high-COD, mixed organic wastewater via microbial electrolysis
• Generate hydrogen and caustic for CIP while removing pollutants
• Deliver a stable, lower-load effluent to the downstream polishing step
• Enable a dedicated water reuse loop for non-potable applications (e.g. washing, utilities)

The solution was integrated as a containerised skid, minimising civil works and allowing staged scale-up as volumes increased.

Results

• Up to 95% pollutant removal
  Effective reduction of COD and key contaminants, easing pressure on downstream treatment and discharge limits.
• 1090 MWh/year
  generated energy as hydrogen from wastewater organic pollution
• Up to 73,000 m³/year of water for reuse
  A substantial portion of treated effluent reintroduced into plant operations, reducing freshwater intake.
• Stabilised effluent profile
  Smoother, more predictable loads despite production variability, reducing risk of non-compliance events.
• Up to 2,000 tCO2eq GHG emissions avoided from recovered chemicals as green circular replacements through 
  valorisation of the pollutants as caustic for CIP and hydrogen as energy carrier.

Business Impact

For a typical mid-size malting company, Aquature’s BASE platform:

• Cuts the effective cost of compliance by reducing peak loads and pollutant levels
• Reduces freshwater consumption via safe, controlled reuse
• Opens a pathway to circular operations, where wastewater is a resource, not just a liability

By stabilising complex wastewater and enabling large-scale reuse, Aquature helps malting companies turn environmental pressure into operational resilience and competitive advantage.