Abattoir wastewater solution uses EtherCAT technology

SMC and a leading Victorian-based OEM specialising in wastewater processing equipment have teamed up to provide a solution for the treatment of wastewater in a large Victorian abattoir.

The project objective was to provide a rendering plant with an increased capacity in volume of effluent processed per day and improved receiving, storing and processing efficiency of the wastewater to accommodate for the plant’s current and future demands for increased productivity.

The project used EtherCAT Industrial Ethernet technology, which can provide benefits to the end user in terms of ensuring continuous 24/7 operation from an operational and maintenance point of view and increased volume of throughput resulting in more efficient and lean processing.

“EtherCAT has a reputation as a very high-end networking system best reserved for highly automated environments. This often leaves smaller customers using older techniques to solve application problems. These methods are often inefficient and antiquated,” commented Jozef Ceh, business development manager for Electronic Platforms at SMC Pneumatics Australia, New Zealand. “The idea that EtherCAT can quite comfortably fit into a local abattoir blows this theory out of the water.”

Accommodating the plant’s current effluent requirements and allowing for about 35% more capacity for future expansion was quite a challenge. Safety and hygiene requirements as well as the refining of the process that deals with extracting the suspended solids more efficiently was another obstacle that the technical team had to overcome, as well as the measuring and dosing process of the required chemicals. All of these elements had to be incorporated into one throughput. In the end, water with the right PH balance had to be put back into the system and this had to be done all in one cycle of the process.

In addition to the upscaled mechanical equipment that facilitates the physical sequential rendering process, the electropneumatic system employed for the job has significantly enhanced the functional and operational benefits at the plant.

EtherCAT is by and large the fastest Industrial Ethernet technology, but it also synchronises with nanosecond accuracy. This is a benefit for all applications in which the target system is controlled or measured via the bus system. The rapid reaction times work to reduce the wait times during the transitions between process steps, which improves application efficiency. Lastly, the EtherCAT system architecture typically reduces the load on the CPU by 25–30% in comparison to other bus systems (given the same cycle time). When optimally applied, EtherCAT’s performance can lead to improved accuracy and greater throughput and thus to lowered costs.

The system was set up to return higher quality water back into the environment and to reduce the impact on the environment while exceeding the minimal specifications of the water authorities. The recycle of water back into the plant for repeat usage also reduced the water consumption and running costs of the plant.

The whole SMC EtherCAT solution was designed, manufactured and delivered in an integrated control panel solution, ready for plug and play, in two weeks.

The result was a rendering process plant with capacity to receive 1 ML with up to 1.5 ML of effluent on a daily basis.

“This project successfully demonstrates the value in challenging the traditional approach to solving problems and looking outside of the comfort zones of historically specified legacy systems that were significant in their time but may impose limitations when encountered by demands of the modern plants. It went outside of status quo and broke the barrier to look at progressive technologies. EtherCAT is for everyone!” concluded Ceh.