Water savings at chicken plant

70% of process water transformed to drinking water quality

Ovivo has recently completed an advanced water treatment plant (AWTP) facility for Inghams Enterprises at its Murarrie processing plant in Brisbane. The facility currently treats the equivalent of two Olympic-sized swimming pools of process water per day and when it reaches its full potential, it will treat close to three.

The design of the plant enables more than 70% of all the process water to be transformed into drinking water of an internationally recognised and approved quality.

The water, however, is not used for drinking. It is re-used in combination with town water to supply increasing water demands. This will mean a saving of 3.15 million litres of water each day for the city of Brisbane by the time the plant reaches full capacity in 2011.

Project and process engineer for the job Peter Fraser said that the project was “one-of-a-kind”.

“It is the first of its kind and it is saving Brisbane around 2.1 million L of water a day running at well below its design capacity,” he said.

The securing of a guaranteed water supply will enable Inghams to expand its processing facilities without relocating or having to purchase water from private sources.

The plant has now been running for almost a year and it has been so successful that Inghams has just approved the construction of a second advanced water treatment facility in the Australian state of Victoria.