Food, Beverage & Agriculture

High-strength, seasonal effluent turned into biogas, reusable water and lower surcharges, for food processors, breweries and beverage producers, dairies, meat and rendering plants, and agri-industry.

What we're treating

Food and beverage effluent is strong, warm and seasonal. A vegetable campaign or a sugar season can run a plant hard for six weeks and leave it near-idle for the rest of the year, and the organic load arriving in that window is often ten to fifty times domestic strength.

Treating that load aerobically means paying for it in air. Treating it anaerobically turns it into biogas. Our process line starts with physico-chemical treatment and dissolved air flotation (DAF) to remove fats, oils and grease (FOG) and suspended solids, then sends the bulk COD through a high-rate anaerobic stage before an aerobic polish brings the effluent within discharge limits. Flotation and physico-chemical pre-treatment appear in 14 plants each across this sector, high-rate anaerobic in seven.

Load pattern: Campaign and shift-driven; long idle periods between production seasons
Binding limits: COD and suspended solids, with nitrogen where protein streams are involved
Hard case: Fats, oils and grease, and restarting biology after a seasonal shutdown
Opportunity: COD recovered as biogas instead of paid for as trade-effluent surcharge

Case studies

All case studies →

88 plants delivered in this sector across 13 countries, 37,732 m³/day of combined capacity. These are written up with their commissioning data.

Stainless-steel reactor tower lit at night at the Kall Ingredients wastewater treatment plant, Tiszapüspöki, Hungary

Flagship projectKall Ingredients (Tisza-TK)Tiszapüspöki, Hungary5,500 m³/dayBIODEC S 200 · CYCLATOR · METHANATORTurnkey anaerobic + CYCLATOR plant treating a 25 t/day COD load: the client named UTB Best EPC Contractor.

Walkway over the treatment basins at the Bonduelle vegetable-processing wastewater treatment plant, Nagykőrös, Hungary

Flagship projectBonduelle Central Europe, NagykőrösNagykőrös, Hungary2,300 m³/dayUASB · ACTIVATORUASB and aerobic treatment at a cannery, 293,854 PE, effluent inside surface-water limits.

Covered anaerobic reactor and biogas pipework at the Dreher brewery wastewater treatment plant, Budapest, Hungary

Flagship projectDREHER BreweriesBudapest, Hungary2,800 m³/dayUASBTurnkey UASB at a brewery: 107,333 PE, closed reactors and a biofilter for noise and odour.

METHANATOR anaerobic reactor at the Bonduelle vegetable-processing wastewater treatment plant, Békéscsaba, Hungary

Flagship projectBonduelle Central Europe, BékéscsabaBékéscsaba, Hungary1,750 m³/dayUASB · ACTIVATORCannery plant built out in two phases to 1,750 m³/day and 226,041 PE.

Concrete HYBRATOR reactor and DAF unit at the Glencore oilseed-crushing wastewater treatment plant, Foktő, Hungary

Flagship projectGlencore, FoktőFoktő, Hungary556 m³/dayHYBRATORDAF pre-treatment and MBBR at a multi-seed crush plant, later extended for the new refinery.

Activated sludge basin at the PepsiCo potato-snack plant wastewater treatment plant, Laktaši, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Flagship projectPepsiCo, LaktašiLaktaši, Bosnia and Herzegovina300 m³/dayHYBRATORDAF and IFAS at a potato snack plant, discharging to a river within its limits.

Technologies applied in this sector

Counted from UTB's own delivered reference list: how often each process appears across the 88 plants in this sector.

HYBRATOR™5 plants

Moving-bed carrier media added to the Cyclator basin for extra load in the same footprint.

Reference plants

The largest 8 of 88 plants delivered in this sector.

Plant	Location	Capacity	Year	Process
Kall Ingredients (Tisza-TK)	Tiszapüspöki, Hungary	5,500 m³/day	2018	METHANATOR · CYCLATOR
DEKO-FOOD Zrt.	Debrecen, Hungary	3,000 m³/day	2008	UASB
Hungerit Zrt.	Szentes, Hungary	3,000 m³/day	2005	Physico-chemical · DAF
DREHER	Budapest, Hungary	2,800 m³/day	2008	UASB
Agrosprint Zrt.	Karcag, Hungary	2,300 m³/day	2022	CYCLATOR · UASB
Bonduelle Central Europe Kft.	Nagykőrös, Hungary	2,300 m³/day	2012	UASB · ACTIVATOR
Bonduelle Central Europe Kft.	Békéscsaba, Hungary	1,750 m³/day	2012	UASB · ACTIVATOR
Arany Kapu Zrt	Kunfehértó, Hungary	750 m³/day	2001	ACTIVATOR

Search the full reference list →

How we deliver it

EPC & turnkey

Single-contract delivery from process design to handover.

Engineering

Process, mechanical, electrical and control design.

Process & equipment supply

Decanters, aerators and process packages as supply-only scope.

Pilot trials

On-site pilots on your real effluent before the plant is sized.

Consultancy

Audits, debottlenecking and permit support on existing assets.

R&D

Laboratory and development work behind our own processes.

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