Embracing sustainability and going the length to achieving it in daily life especially with a complicated set up like an ice cream factory is not easy. There are many passionate followers of sustainability like Iceberg Ice creams, Nellore whose manufacturing methods are highly scrutinised. Mr Suhas B Shetty, the proprietor of the factory in Nellore, Andhra Pradesh, is one such person who is very particular about building his company around ethical and sustainably sourced ingredients.
Iceberg is one of India’s few companies which provide organic Ice creams. Their ingredients are carefully grown and the production process varies with hygiene, safety and purity. Iceberg abides by its mission and vision to provide real ice creams that bring joy and memories while offering nutritional benefits of milk and butter.
There is a need to regulate the waste disposal from the factory. The effluents include milk and fruit extracts, which only cause damage to the environment upon joining the water bodies. Working with a strong resolve to ensure sustainability in operations, Iceberg Ice Creams approached Hydromo.
Hydromo, one of the leading providers of water and waste management solutions undertook the design and installation of an effluent treatment plant and executed it to perfection ensuring all compliance standards are met and there is reuse of treated water.
Hydromo’s team, upon inspecting the factory of its operations and closely observing the effluents released from the factory, designed an Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP) that met their specific requirements to ensure a safer, treated effluent is let out from the factory. The ETP installation effectively treated the milk and fruit extracts from water waste but also helped them achieve sustainability goals.
The dairy industry is responsible for processing and transforming milk into yoghurt, cheese, ice-cream, butter and other sub-products. The residues produced during these transformation processes, combined with large water consumption, make the dairy industry one of the most polluting of the food industries. Indeed, from 4 up to 15 L of water can be used per litre of milk processed. This wastewater is produced during the cleaning process of the milking equipment and pipelines that are usually made in four cycles: first rinsing where about 92% of the suspended solids are removed; detergent wash to eliminate the attached organic material; acid rinsing to remove the inorganic deposits from the piping and neutralise the alkaline detergent residue; sanitize rinsing to ensure that the milk lines are free of any microorganisms. The effluents from dairy industries are characterized by their highly biodegradable nature and presence of soluble organics, suspended solids and trace organics, presenting high values of chemical oxygen demand, COD (1000–12 000 mg O2/L), biochemical oxygen demand, BOD5 (500–2600 mg O2/L).
The MBBR technology shows to have a good performance to treat dairy wastewater, reaching a removal efficiency of 98% after 8 h of treatment, using a FR of 20% for a lower COD concentration of 600–800 mg O2/L.
A satisfied Suhas B Shetty, Founder, ICEBERG Organics said, “We approached Hydromo for ETP requirements for our new factory in Nellore, AP. The support and awareness given by the team was incomparable. We are extremely happy and satisfied. The installation team was very well planned and also excelled our expectations in execution.”
The installation at the factory has been seamless and the treated water is being reused for farming and landscaping.
