Identifying the water footprint reduction opportunities in a canned pineapple factory | |
| Author | Parichaya Sangworakan |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no.EV-17-14 |
| Subject(s) | Footprints--Identification Canned pineapple |
| Note | A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering in Environmental Engineering and Management |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Series Statement | Thesis ; no. EV-17-14 |
| Abstract | The food and beverage manufacturing is the most important business sectors that require a large quantity of water for its day-to-day operation and production. Therefore, the interest in Water Footprint is growing rapidly in this sector. In this study, the water footprint of a pineapple industry in Chonburi province, Thailand was determined. The factory has a maximum capacity of raw material of 550 tons/day to produce canned pineapple product and pineapple juice product. However, this study mainly focused on the canned processing. The study started with an Eco-Mapping to identify the environmental problems. It was found that, noise level and temperature in 14 of 42 sampling points were higher than the standard, while the light intensity of all sampling points was lower than the standard. At the factory, 296.7 tons of raw pineapple is consumed every day to produce 78.4 tons of canned product (26.4 % w/w) and 74.8 tons of juice (25.2 % w/w). It was found that, the pineapple peel and core could be accounted for 32.5% w/w, while there is 15% of weight loss due to the solid waste spillage. The juice processing consumes the highest water consumption approximately 237.9 m³/day. However, its wastewater is reused in the washing process. Then, the wastewater treatment plant efficiency was evaluated and found that, the anaerobic pond has a good efficiency of BOD removal of approximately 95%, while the pond system, which was claimed as the aerobic treatment has low efficiency. Thus, it could be inferred that these ponds did not function as the treatment ponds, but only as storage ponds. Then, water footprint of canned pineapple was calculated, which is 12 m³/ton. However, it could not be indicated whether it is more or less than the recommended value. The waste minimization and 3Rs opportunities were recommended to the factory. The target factory should install the water automatic shut off valve, which could reduce water consumption by 84 m³/day, while 15 m³/day of water could be reduced if the factory installs high-pressure spray nozzles in rising process. The wastewater segregation technique was suggested to improve the wastewater loading. Furthermore, the factory could claim the advantage of a high depth storage pond to another anaerobic treatment as well as improve aeration system inside the storage pond. Lastly, this study provided the sustainability report for the target factory to report the current environmental issues and helps the factory to get the willing of operating business along with the society and environmental responsibility. |
| Year | 2017 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD) |
| Department | Department of Energy and Climate Change (Former title: Department of Energy, Environment, and Climate Change (DEECC)) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Environmental Engineering and Management (EV) |
| Chairperson(s) | Visvanathan, C.; |
| Examination Committee(s) | Annachhatre, Ajit P.;Anal, Anil Kumar; |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | Royal Thai Government Fellowship; |
| Degree | Thesis (M.Eng.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2017 |