Aerofloat’s work with a growing ready-meals giant is a prime example of the company’s ability to help clients upscale with flexibility and speed, Food & Beverage News discovered.
Aerofloat, wastewater treatment specialists, recently helped a growing ready-meals company complete its new manufacturing facility in Yennora, New South Wales.
Michael Anderson, Aerofloat’s general manager of engineering, said the company’s extensive history working with food manufacturers put the company in an ideal position to work with a ready-meals manufacturer.
“The customer had another site but as a growing business, they outgrew that site and we were contacted to take a look, provide a price and help identify what the design could be,” said Anderson.
“We provided a lot of design input for the client. We went through a bidding process to win the work.”
Upon winning the contract, Aerofloat worked extensively with other companies hired to help fit out the new facility and make sure it was food and beverage industry compliant.
“It became a matter of identifying the space and better understanding their flows. We’ve done quite a lot of work on a number of food and beverage plants, especially in the ready meals space, which gives us expert insight,” said Anderson.
“The customer was pretty straight forward in the sense that we understand what is required when running different products each day, and also seasonal implications.
“All of this plays into the type of wastewater and the way in which it must be treated.”
The type of wastewater can be dependent on season offerings such as soups in the winter and salads in the summer.
“We understand that need and are able to work with the client on a tight footprint because space was at a premium,” said Anderson.
“The wastewater treatment plant on the existing site was basically a bolt on to the side of the existing building. This project was a fit-out construction.
“They asked us to make it as small as possible without compromising process.”
Aerofloat’s expert teams of designers and engineers, along with cutting edge technology, allows the company to test out potential designs before committing the manufacturing process.
“We designed the wastewater treatment plant with our 3D modelling capabilities,” said Anderson.
“And we also conducted multiple draft meetings to display what the plant would look like.
“The client, builder and consultant were all able to provide their opinions about how the plant would work from an operational standpoint.”
Some of the challenges faced by Aerofloat were around footprint and workability of the site.
“But we were able to come up with a solution where everyone was happy. From there we went into a detailed design phase, and we had a tight time line to complete so that the customer could start producing,” said Anderson.
“We had to be ready whilst other building works were going on around us. Aerofloat were able to meet the practical completion date that was specified so we could receive wastewater from the first commissioning of their lines.”
Another key advantage to the project was Aerofloat’s capability to be industry compliant from day one.
“With any new plant there is a commissioning phase, so we tweaked and optimised the plant and have had an ongoing arrangement for chemical supply to the site which provides us with an extra set of eyes and ears at the site,” Anderson added.
Aerofloat also ensures the team tasked with any given project is kept up to speed of the requirements.
“We are constantly retraining and bringing operators up speed on everything they need to know,” said Anderson.
Aerofloat’s work with the ready-meals manufacturer saw the installation of a large collection pit which allows for the correct mixing of chemicals to maintain pH levels, an important aspect of wastewater treatment.
“It has a reasonably large collection pit and, importantly, we are mixing up low ground collection tanks to avoid build-up,” said Anderson.
“Our balance tank is not overly big given the space, but it’s appropriate for the flows that were specified.
“We mix that tank well, but we also aerate the tank to inhibit fermentation in low flow times as you can get a build-up of microorganism in those tanks over time.”
It’s this attention to detail which allows Aerofloat’s installations to maintain integrity.
“We also pH correct in that tank,” added Anderson.
“And the balance tank is big enough that we can ride different CIP’s, so it isn’t always pH correcting, but based on reacting to the water that is coming in.
“It’s big enough that CIP water is mixed with other wash down water which creates a nice, blended average.
“That said, we still need to pH correct and dial it into the optimal ph. for coagulation to minimise wastewater chemicals.”
A new product launch from Aerofloat has also been employed to great effect by the customer at its new facility.
“We have just launched the AeroCIRC DAF, which is a rotary scraper with a 60-degree bottom, which is in line with our other product in that it’s self- cleaning for the life of the DAF,” said Anderson.
The other product Anderson mentioned being the AeroDAF.
“We developed this product to target higher flows because our AeroDAF’s are six and 12 cubic metre per hour treatment windows,” said Anderson.
“But now our AeroCIRC DAF’s come in two model with 20 and 30 cubic metres per hour. The customer have one of our larger 2.6 metre diameter
AeroCIRC DAF.”
Aerofloat also had to adapt the product to meet the needs of the customer, something the company is adept at doing, being adaptive.
“It’s a very tall product. Imagine the old AeroDAF with its 60-degree bottom and 60-degree top, with one metre and 1.5 metres in diameter, if you go out to 2.6 metres in diameter it will literally be the size of a rocket ship,” said Anderson.
“So, what we did was keep the bottom half and a rotary scraper on top that displaces the sludge into a chute.”
The work with the ready-meals manufacturer, and the ability to tailor to the customer’s unique needs, is also helped in large part by the extensive suite of DAF’s on offer from Aerofloat. “That’s the best part about our business, we invest money in research and development and new products,” Anderson added.
“If we were just buying products from others we would never evolve. We always work at making things better every day.
“Every year we have reasonable investment in our research and development, which helps us to win work and provide better solutions.”