Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Desalination, industrial, and agricultural wastes are at all-time highs, containing brine output from various cleaning processes full of chemicals, radiation, pharmaceuticals, nutrients, heavy metals, endocrine disrupters, boron, hormones, and salts. This waste is discharged back into the soil and oceans either through surface water and sewer discharge, injection wells, evaporations ponds, or land application from agriculture irrigation. The planet needs a cleaner, more environmentally and ecologically sustainable approach, to treating waste water discharge.The dairy industry is a large contributor to the amount of wastewater produced in America (State of Wisconsin 1998).A typical large cheese and whey plant pulls 500,000 gallons of water out of the ground each day. Due to the future limitations on certain constituents and the need for conserving the world's water, companies are engaging in new technologies to reduce their environmental footprint.The objective of this Phase I proposal is to conduct a water testing program using the MicroEVAPTMsystem to clean and enable reuse of the chloride streams and reverse osmosis retentate used in the cheese manufacturing industry. Since chlorides are heavily used in the cheese manufacturing industry and MicroEVAPTMhas a rich history of high TDS removal, there are several stakeholders that believe MicroEVAPTMmay be the solution to their problem.Micronic is partnering with Grande Cheese for this Phase I SBIR Proposal. Grande's objectives of this project are to determine if Micronic Technologies can cost effectively concentrate their chloride streams. The brine comes from the cheese making process and they would like to return it back to cheese making. The nanofiltration/reverse osmosis retentate is generated during whey processing and they would like to concentrate that for animal feed. The main objective is to assess the potential integration of MicroEVAPTMto generate high-quality potable water for reuse in the plant. The project anticipates returning solids and water to animal feed reducing the amount of water required for farms to pump out of the ground and provide minerals that the cows need. In addition, reusing the concentrated wastewater for road deicing (non-food grade) by the local county saves 15% in rock salt use.Grande Cheese will provide in kind support for the proposed research effort as they are dedicated to furthering research and development to reach their sustainability goals. Grande will provide four sets of the following waste samples to Micronic Technologies for processing: cheese brine, diluted cheese brine, and reverse osmosis retentate. Grande will define parameters of success and provide technical expertise to support market research. With Grande's help, Micronic Technologies will develop a return on investment analysis for the cheese manufacturing industry.The technical objectives and research questions identified will determine if Micronic's clean water and wastewater produced can be reused and promote water conservation in the three wastewater streams.Reverse Osmosis Retentate: Water recovery for potable water reuse, and dairy solids to animal feed (food grade), eliminating all discharge to the environment.Diluted Cheese Brine: Road deicing (non-food grade), replacing purchased rock salt by the County and the use of liquid brine saving 15% in rock salt use.Cheese Brine: Concentrating for reuse back in the cheese making process (food grade), eliminating all discharge to the environment.In addition to cleaning the dirty water and recovering a 95 percent throughput, utilizing MicroEVAPTMreduces wastewater disposal costs and allows resource recovery from the brine. After resource recovery, the eventual small slurry can be dried and encapsulated, eliminating the possibility of leakage, where it can be sent to a landfill. With over 150 tests conducted thus far, MicroEVAPTMconsistently removed over 99% of TDS and most other solids. Micronic Technologies believes it will be successful at removal and concentrating cheese wastewater, due to its high removal history for myriad contaminants, specifically TDS.
Animal Health Component
0%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
100%
Goals / Objectives
Objective 1: Determine if MicroEVAP™ concentrates the above wastewater streams from the cheese manufacturing process sufficiently to improve water conservation and significantly reduce discharge to the environment. Key questions and activities to achieve this objective include:Question: What is the average percentage of waste generated from processing wastewater through MicroEVAP™?Activity: Conduct precise measurements of throughput by measuring mass of both product and waste using scales and measuring volume using graduated cylinders for each sample purge.Question: How does the volume reduction and costs compare to currently available processes?Activity: Perform market analysis on current cheese wastewater treatment processes and their throughput percentage.Question: Is the brine concentrated by MicroEVAP™ suitable for icy road application?Activity: Conduct third party salinity analysis on Micronic's waste stream produced from the cheese brine samples. Work with Grande to determine salinity measurements that constitute success for road application.Objective 2: Determine if MicroEVAP™ clean water is suitable for reuse in the cheese manufacturing process.Question: After MicroEVAP™ processing, what constituents remain in the clean water and at what levels?Activity: Conduct third-party solids analysis on Micronic's clean water.Question: How do those remaining constituents compare to FDA/EPA established limits?Activity: Work with Grande to determine FDA/EPA limits and which constituents to test for in MicroEVAP™'s product water to potentially use as influent water for the cheese manufacturing process.Question: Is there leaching in the clean water and wastewater from the MicroEVAP™ system?Activity: Evaluate the metal components third-party results from the cheese tests that have been historically known to leach in previous trials from the MicroEVAP™'s system (ME-1).Question: What materials and modifications for cleaning need to be made to produce MicroEVAP™ to ensure food grade quality equipment and reuse in the cheese brining process? Activity: Work with materials specialists and Grande cheese to advance discussions on material selection and CIP (clean in place) capabilities to prevent leaching from the system and previous tests constituents in future on site systems.Objective 3: Determine the financial and environmental return on investment, considering operating and capital costs.Question: What are the current and potential future operating costs of wastewater treatment/ disposal for cheese manufacturing, specifically for Grande Cheese?Activity: Grande to develop capital and operating costs of current wastewater treatment/disposal processesActivity: Determine Micronic financial/revenue benefit for long term investment in cheese market.Question: What are the estimated operating and capital costs estimated for MicroEVAP™ at small scale (1500 GPD) and larger scale (30,000 to 60,000 GPD)Activity: Perform an updated thorough capex and opex evaluation of Micronic's historical pricing model for small scale (1500 GPD) and large scale (30,000 to 60,000 GPD)Question: The projected environmental benefits in using MicroEVAP™ are reduced chlorides and other TDS to surface waters or deep injection wells. In addition, the reuse of water reduces the amount of well water needed to be extracted from the aquifer. What other environmental benefits accrue with the use of MicroEVAP™ to process wastewater from cheese manufacturing?Activity: Micronic will evaluate the third-party lab analysis along with Grande to determine the percent removal of certain constituents compared to other treatment processes used in the cheese industry and how this new information will support environmental stewardship in favor of using a MicroEVAP™ system.Question: What savings are gained from using MicroEVAP™ in treating cheese brine to provide to the local county government for their brine road solution needs?Activity: Micronic will work with Grande and the local government that Grande supports to conduct a comparison to the salinity concentration of the salt waste they have used to wet their rock salt versus the salinity concentration of the waste produced by Micronic and how that differs.Activity: Review local county salt treatment costs and offsets provided by Grande's provision of brine to the County.Question: How large is the potential application of MicroEVAP™ to the cheese processing and production market in the US? Activity: Micronic will work with Grande, Symbiont, and Research Triangle Institute (RTI) to address the cheese processing and production market size and how MicroEVAP™ be applied to the market size and in what specific applications, i.e. RO retentate and/or cheese brine waste.The Reverse Osmosis Retentate stream will have the additional research questions addressed in the proposed effort:Objective 4: Determine if MicroEVAP™ concentrate from RO retentate wastewater stream and produced water is suitable for animal feed.Question: After MicroEVAP™ processing, what constituents remain in the clean water and wastewater and at what levels?Activity: Conduct third-party solids analysis on MicroEVAP™ processed water streams.Question: How do those remaining constituents compare to FDA/EPA established limits?Activity: Work with Grande to determine FDA/EPA limits and which constituents to test for in MicroEVAP™'s product water and wastewater to determine clean drinking water for the animals and assess any leaching in both streams.Question: How does the concentrate stream reduce the need for purchased feed and water needs for farm animals?Activity: Evaluate third- party lab analysis on cheese tests of % total solids and if the solids concentrated in the waste stream are supportive enough to reduce the amount of animal feed needed to be purchased and water to be drawn.Activity: Work with Grande to determine what concentrations of TDS need to be in order to provide high nutritional value to the animals.Objective 5: Determine the amounts and types of solids for animal feed including fats, proteins, carbohydrates and dissolved minerals does the MicroEVAP™ concentrate stream produce?Question: Does MicroEVAP™ concentrate all of the solids or at least to a 20% solids solution and how is that measured?Question: Does the TDS contained in the milk become concentrated in the waste stream to provide high nutritional value to the animals?Activity: Micronic will research process parameters to ensure throughput will reach the desired solids concentration and that digestibility is not impacted by the process, i.e., heat, dynamic flow, etc. The third-party lab analysis will include total solids, total dissolved solids, and several mineral tests which will show the amount of each constituent in Micronic's waste stream.Activity: Perform an evaluation of the third-party lab analysis on Micronic's waste stream. This analysis will include mass balance calculations to determine the ratio at which Micronic concentrates cheese wastewater.Activity: Work with Grande to determine ROI as far as feed and water costs to livestock.
Project Methods
Work PlanGrande Cheese will provide in kind support (see letter of commitment) for the proposed research effort as they are dedicated to furthering research and development to reach their sustainability goals. As stated in their commitment letter, they will provide four sets of the following waste samples to Micronic Technologies for processing: cheese brine, diluted cheese brine, and reverse osmosis retentate. Grande will define parameters of success and provide technical expertise to support market research. With Grande's help, Micronic Technologies will develop a return on investment analysis for the cheese manufacturing industry. Senior Environmental Manager, Pat Cardiff, whose resume is included in this proposal, will lead the in-kind effort on behalf of Grande. He will access engineering talent as necessary within his department.Task 1: Plan Testing ProgramThe objective of this task is to plan the testing program for Grande Cheese's wastewater streams, coordinate the scheduling of shipment of samples, and develop tailored sampling protocols with all involved parties. Micronic will coordinate with Grande Cheese to determine the amount and volume for each water sample. The samples will include cheese brine, diluted cheese brine, and reverse osmosis retentate. The plan is for Micronic to use local EPA certified labs to perform constituent analysis on the pre and post streams and all sampling will adhere to the lab's protocols. Task 2: Identify and Observe Testing ProtocolsThe objective of this task is to ensure that a thorough and technically correct method is in place to execute the testing program, both internally and at the third-party testing facilities. Micronic will adhere to internal handling, labeling, and processing procedures to ensure critical data is captured and recorded accurately and consistently. Micronic complies with all in-house developed procedures to ensure best practices conformance is consistent. In addition, Micronic will adhere to the third-party EPA certified lab testing protocols to ensure proper sample collection, documentation, storage, delivery, and testing. Chain of custody procedures will be used to ensure proper handling of samples, in accordance with in-house Micronic and third-party lab procedures. Grande, along with support from Micronic will perform a sanitary review of the system. The review will be based on 3-A standards. This sanitary review will advance the design process for future units to be deployed in the cheese manufacturing industry and will be focused primarily on cleanability as it reviews materials of constructions, surface finishes, cracks and crevices, and gasket materials. The 3-A sanitary review aims to accomplish the following: "1) to protect food meant for human consumption from contamination and 2) to guarantee that all product contact surfaces can be mechanically cleaned and dismantled manually for thorough inspections" (MPC 2018).Task 3: Grande to Collect and Ship Water Samples and Process through MicroEVAPTMThe goal of this task is to systematically collect and document samples at each phase of the process for methodical and thorough testing. Samples will be taken from Grande's location in Wisconsin. Micronic staff will receive samples and accept the chain of custody and, once processed through the MicroEVAPTM system, Micronic will ship/deliver source, product, and waste to a third-party testing facility.The Company developed an automated Data Acquisition System (DAS) to portray system operating parameters in real time. Temperatures, pressures, and air velocities at multiple points within the treatment system and flow rates are measured, and the data is collected automatically by the DAS system computer running LabVIEW. The DAS displays system performance data on monitors and records it in Excel spread sheets.For all process runs, the DAS will capture and store a full set of MicroEVAPTM system data generated by sensors. Micronic Technologies will conduct the following actions in support of this task:Document pertinent information gathered from the source, product, and wastewater samples produced;Label and tag samples in accordance with company procedures;Ensure standard company protocols for equipment cleaning, sample storage, and laboratory procedures are observed during these test runs;Process source water samples through MicroEVAPTM system in accordance with approved protocolsMicronic has developed a fully functioning in-house testing lab, with requisite test and monitoring equipment for measuring and recording applicable system attributes during testing.The current field pilot (ME-1) includes a control system developed from an off the shelf open source industrial computer by KUNBUS GmbH. Its real time operating system is Linux and the pilot is programed in Python, both of which are open source software. All aspects of the control system can be accessed on its operator front panel and by local and remote Ethernet connection.