Analysis of the Effects of Wastewater Treatment Costs
On The Feasibility of Major Processing Changes
Including In-Plant Reuse of Wastewater
In a Poultry Processing Plant
RALPH E. FROST, Graduate Research Assistant
School of Civil Engineering
Purdue University
West Lafayette, Indiana 47907
FRANKLIN E. WOODARD, Associate Professor
Department of Civil Engineering
University of Maine
Orono, Maine 04473
INTRODUCTION
Managers of poultry processing plants face the problem of meeting stringent effluent
guidelines in an economical manner. Several alternatives are available which will reduce
water use, and therefore wastewater disposal costs. However, determining the least-cost
solution has been difficult. Interrelationships between many of the operations in the
processing scheme due to sequential water use and the various operating and capital costs
for modifications demand consideration. Also, as effluent limitations become more strict,
wastewater treatment costs will increase. This rise in cost will affect the feasibility of water-
saving process modifications, and may possibly make water reuse economical.
In essence, processors would like to know the answers to the following questions: 1)
What combination of process modifications and/or wastewater treatment processes will
yield the least-cost solution? 2) How high must treatment costs rise before a specific
alternative becomes feasible? and 3) What effect will the installation of a specific
modification have on operating costs?
The remainder of this paper describes a systematic approach which yields the answers
to these and other questions. To be more specific, the flows requirements of existing and
proposed processing operations in existing processing plants and their costs were
formulated in linear programming terms. The solution of the linear programming problem
yielded the least-cost combination of existing and proposed processes.
Ward (1) developed and demonstrated the application of linear programming
techniques on the problem of water use in a poultry processing plant. Considering many
minor changes in the flow scheme of a plant in North Carolina, Ward found that fresh water
use could be reduced by 45% to 51% and that annual returns of 62% to 494% could be
realized on the investments necessary for the optimum modifications (2).
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