WPL Wins Wastewater Contract For Quorn Plant

• Marlow Foods awards tender for lamella separators and chemical dosing kit
• Equipment supports production growth and tighter environmental consents
• WPL will provide design, training and commissioning

WPL has won the contract for wastewater treatment equipment to support expansion of the Quorn production line for Marlow Foods’ Teesside plant. The company is investing £150M in production of the protein-rich meat substitute over the next five years due to fast-growing global demand.

Richard Smith, process engineer at Marlow Foods said, “This is an exciting time for Marlow Foods as we expand our site and workforce and increase production of Quorn. Making sure we meet our environmental obligations is very important to us and our world-leading brands and we look forward to working closely with WPL to meet this requirement.”

WPL will supply two WPL Lamella Separator tanks and chemical dosing equipment, which will also help the Quorn facility meet a tighter discharge consent for phosphate, nitrogen and suspended solids issued by the Environment Agency to ensure the site is compliant with the European Water Framework Directive. The equipment will handle a maximum flow rate of 54m3/hour and a maximum of 400mg/l total suspended solids.

Pilot trials
Andrew Baird, technical director at WPL said, “Marlow Foods undertook independent pilot trials on lamella separator tanks and decided they were the best solution for this fast-growing site.

“WPL was one of only two lamella separator manufacturers recommended by independent consultant Andy Pitt, who has a long-standing relationship with Marlow Foods and consults for Scottish Water. WPL won the bid because overall we offered the best competitive value.”

Small footprint
Lamella separator tanks are widely used to help in removing suspended solids from municipal and industrial wastewater. They are an ideal solution where space is at a premium because the physical footprint is as low as 10% of that required for a conical sedimentation tank.

Continued research and development has led to the improved design of the WPL Lamella Separator which results in up to 95% efficiency. The system now benefits from intake via a central channel, allowing a calmed, even flow to travel through both inclined plate packs.

Discharge is via a full length v-notch channel which sits on either side of the WPL Lamella Separator. This significantly reduces the outfall velocity and results in a lower volume of suspended solids being retained in the final discharge.

High standard
Andrew Haywood, utilities sales manager at WPL, said, “WPL is a framework supplier to many of the UK’s water utilities, which are rigorous in the high standard equipment they require. The company has recently worked closely on projects with Anglian Water, Scottish Water and United Utilities, a record that was valued by the client.”

Along with the WPL Lamella Separator tanks, which will be delivered to site in April 2018, WPL will supply a flow splitter, a poly-dosing unit for liquid polymer and a polyaluminium chloride (PAC) dosing unit with a duty dosing pump. The chemicals will be supplied by a third-party.

WPL will also provide design plans for the WPL Lamella Separator tank and carry out onsite training and commissioning of the plant to ensure operators have a full understanding of the plant’s products and processes prior to handover.