The water consumption in the meat processing industry has already been significantly reduced in recent years. Wastewater treatment and disposal costs – the main cost for the total water housekeeping – vary not directly proportional to the water use. Treatment and discharge costs are mainly influenced by a load of organic compounds and nutrients and not by volume. By reducing water consumption wastewater streams usually became more concentrated.

Because of the standards for discharge of wastewater and the therewith associated costs, almost all slaughterhouses have a form of wastewater treatment. Most common are coarse screening, whether or not followed by Dissolved Air Flotation (DAF) and sometimes followed by a biological post-treatment.

Although the share of water costs in total production is still relatively small, the cost of water treatment becomes an increasingly important factor. Besides the cost aspect, the image of an environmentally conscious company plays an important role. The CirTec technologies range from pre-treatment to sedimentation and effluent polishing.

In particular, in the pre-purification, the removal of fats and solid material, important savings, and optimizations are possible. By using fine screens, fats, greases, and solids can be removed in a very efficient manner without adding chemicals. Screened material can be dewatered to a dewatered sludge cake with high dry solids concentrations.