ALAR Water Treatment Keeps Corrugated Company in Compliance
Feb 12, 2019
Problem: A west coast packaging company experienced problems with their existing flexographic ink wastewater treatment equipment. Three locations reported that their plate-n-frame filter press systems caused bottlenecks and maintenance issues.
Solution: An ALAR representative visited each facility to determine if the Flex-O-Star® would solve the problem. ALAR received a wash water sample and performed a bench test using basic chemistry and the Auto-Vac® rotary vacuum drum filter. The results were sent out for analysis to ensure effluent discharge compliance. A consumable and capital cost estimate was submitted with recommendations on how to integrate the machinery. The equipment solution met the regulatory and operation needs, and a Flex-O-Star® was custom designed and built for each packaging plant.
Result: The existing clarifiers and filter presses were replaced by the Flex-O-Star®. These systems treat and filter a day’s worth of sludge in less than five hours. The filtrate discharges into the city sewer and the dry solids go to landfill. With years of continuous use, the Flex-O-Star® and Auto-Vac® remain the most cost effective and low maintenance sludge dewatering technologies. A fourth system was purchased to manage a wastewater expansion project that contains ink, starch, PVA, boiler blow down and trace amounts of oil.