Veolia Designs "First-of-its-Kind" Sustainable Wastewater Treatment Facility for Hershey

The Challenge

The Hershey Company was in need of a new wastewater treatment facility with increased capacity to replace its existing 100-year-old treatment plant. In addition to increasing treatment capacity, Hershey wanted to significantly enhance the quality of its wastewater effluent prior to discharge to the municipality. Hershey was also looking for the new facility to be an environmentally sustainable facility that incorporates advanced energy and byproduct recovery technologies to reduce energy needs.

 

The Solution

Veolia Water Technologies partnered with Hershey to develop a “first-of-its-kind” advanced wastewater treatment process to secure the manufacturer’s current and future wastewater treatment needs. 

After lab studies and analysis, Veolia engineers designed a high-performance wastewater treatment process. The design for this facility includes a variety of advanced biological, physical, chemical, and tertiary wastewater treatment technologies.

The facility is also integrated with advanced monitoring and control capabilities to provide real-time water characterization data which is used to automate and optimize the facility’s operation. The facility also utilizes several sustainable technologies. Biogas is produced as a byproduct from the facility’s Biothane® anaerobic digester. After the biogas is cleaned and stored, it is valorized in a Combined Heat and Power (CHP) Generator to create electricity and heat onsite, which will be used to offset energy costs.

Developing a “First-of-its-kind” Wastewater Treatment Facility

The Hershey Wastewater Treatment Facility uses an innovative process that has never been used before. Veolia engineers combined multiple advanced wastewater treatment technologies to create a high-performance process that is able to create a superior effluent prior to discharge.

Wastewater Treatment Process Overview

• Screening and Equalization
• Biothane® UASB (Anaerobic Digestion)
• 2 Stage AnoxKaldnes^TM MBBR (Aerobic)
• IDRAFLOT® DAF (Dissolved Air Flotation)
• Hydrotech Discfiltration
• Sulfothane^TM Biogas Cleaning
• CHP (Combined Heat & Power Electrical Generator)
• Ultra-Violet Disinfection
   

The Results

The Hershey Wastewater Treatment Facility was commissioned in 2019 and its performance has exceeded expectations. The project achieved its goals of producing a high-quality effluent before being discharged to the municipal sewer system and secured the current and future wastewater treatment needs of Hershey.

BOD/COD Removal

The Biothane® UASB (Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket) and AnoxKaldnesTM MBBR (Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor) technologies are able to significantly reduce the BOD/COD from the wastewater stream. The UASB removes, on average, 86% of the SCOD. The final effluent COD averages at 107 mg/l.

TSS (Total Suspended Solids) Removal

The facility is also able to remove the majority of the TSS, primarily through its IDRAFLOT® Dissolved Air Flotation technology paired with a Hydrotech woven media Discfilter for TSS polishing. As a result, the final effluent TSS average is less than 15 mg/l.

In summary, the project achieved its goals of producing a high-quality effluent before being discharged to the municipal sewer system and secured the current and future wastewater treatment needs of the client.