d’Arta is a Belgian family company with a worldwide reputation in developing, processing, and distributing fresh frozen products such as vegetables, fruits, herbs, and ready-to-eat (side) dishes. Sustainability is a fundamental part of how d’Arta manages its daily operations. Water management is an important aspect of this.
Efficient use of water
d’Arta‘s challenge is to deal efficiently with water, a crucial element in the production process. On the one hand, it serves as process water for washing, peeling, steaming, and blanching the products. On the other hand, the water is used as evaporating water for condensers. This ensures that the company site in Ardooie (BE) has an average water consumption of 300 000 m³ /year.
Ekopak installed its first water treatment installation at d’Arta in 2016. Next to the site is a pond which is the main source of water supply. Due to the high iron level in the pond water, d’Arta decided to expand the current installation and increase its capacity.
Full-scale installation with NX membranes
In the summer of 2022, several pilot tests were conducted with Ekopak’s mobile R&D lab. Following these pilot tests, a full-scale installation with dNF membranes from NX Filtration with a capacity of 2x20m³/h was chosen. These NX membranes proved to be extremely suitable for the treatment and de-ironing of rainwater from the pond.
The result of this investment was a trouble-free operation of the installation. This allowed d’Arta to increase its process water capacity while achieving significant water savings. For Ekopak, this is the first installation with NX Membranes!
“The installation started up smoothly and delivers water of the required quality with a recovery factor of 90% which is >10% higher compared to conventional membrane technology. The NX filtrate also allows the ROs to perform better, they are less contaminated and have to be CIPted less often thanks to this.”
– Walter Van Gysel, Project Manager at Ekopak
“With our extended water treatment installation, we can now manage our water resources more efficiently than ever before, which results in significant savings and enhanced resilience against droughts. Thanks to the installation on rain and well water, we have a capacity of about 10 000 m³/ month of produced process water. We have less water waste and better iron removal.”
– Steven Laridon, HSE Manager at d’Arta
In addition to the installation in Belgium, d’Arta also relies on Ekopak for its sites in England, Italy, and Portugal, each time using rainwater as a source.
Blue Deal project
d’Arta regularly experiences a lack of rainwater, especially during the hot summer months when there is more evaporation at the condensers. To deal with this challenge, the company looked for alternative water supplies.
This is how the idea of supplementing the water shortages with the rainwater overflow from many nearby companies came about. The companies from the Nijverheidsstraat and Steenovenstraat in Ardooie were accordingly contacted. Through a new separate sewage system, the rainwater from the neighbors is directed to d’Arta’s buffer basins, creating an additional 30 000 m3 of rainwater per year.
This project was supported by the Vlaamse Milieu Maatschappij in the framework of the Blue Deal. Read more here.
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