Wastewater generated from agricultural and food operations has distinctive characteristics that sets it apart from wastewater produced in other industries. While they are usually non-toxic and biodegradable, food processing wastewater often has high concentrations of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and suspended solids (SS) with many effluent variations depending on whether it is from vegetable, fruit, or meat product, as well as the seasonal nature of food processing and post-harvesting.

For example:

• Vegetable washing generates high loads of particulate matter, some dissolved organics, and may also contain surfactants
• Animal slaughter and processing produces very strong organic waste from body fluids. This wastewater is frequently contaminated by significant levels of antibiotics and growth hormones, and by a variety of pesticides used to control external parasites

In many cases, this wastewater is sent to settling ponds to allow solids to sink and the BOD to be reduced naturally. Evaporation ponds are also used to prevent pesticides, fertilizers and salts in agricultural wastewater from contaminating the water bodies they would flow into by gravity. Settling ponds are a common and useful practice, however, the real estate needed for such pits can be large and difficult and costly to manage.

Mechanical evaporation systems can be used to lower existing pond volumes, thus allowing enhanced evaporation without re-engineering, re-permitting, and enlarging existing ponds. SMI Evaporation Machines can rapidly increase the evaporation process, with up to 14 times more efficiency than space taken by the same area of pond. SMI Evaporation Machines are relatively compact, reliable and efficient and can be transported to different sites as necessary. They can be a low cost addition to enhance evaporation on existing containment ponds or to minimize new pond surface area.

We offer complete process water solutions, from initial site analysis to remote centralized computer control systems. Learn more about SMI’s processed water evaporation technologies.