JBS Dinmore: Upgrades in Wastewater Treatment and Dewatering Technology
The JBS Dinmore facility, the largest beef processing plant in the southern hemisphere, accounts for 10% of Australia’s total beef processing capacity. It produces a wide range of grass and grain-fed beef brands supplied to major Australian supermarkets and overseas markets.
For many years, the Dinmore wastewater treatment plant operated with a process that involved screening, save-alls for fat removal and tallow recovery, a covered anaerobic pond with biogas recovery, an aerobic process, chemical phosphorus removal, and final disinfection before discharging treated wastewater into a nearby stream under EPA license. Over time, the inefficiencies of the save-alls led to an unsustainable fat buildup in the anaerobic ponds, prompting JBS to engage Hydroflux to upgrade the primary treatment stage of the process.
The plant upgrade included better isolation of the red and green streams, improved screening, and treating the red and green streams in separate dissolved air flotation (DAF) systems. The DAF systems supplied were twin Hydroflux HyDAF HD-V units, each capable of treating over 200 kL of wastewater per hour. The HD-V range is designed for wastewater streams with a high likelihood of sedimentation, common in meat processing plants where chemistry is not employed. These units are equipped with steep sloping sides and a screw conveyor that automatically extracts settled solids.
The upgrade was executed on a turnkey basis, encompassing all civil, mechanical, and electrical works, including the demolition of the old save-alls and an upgrade of the biofilter system. The units have been in operation since 2021, effectively removing significant amounts of fat and solids providing the required protection of the covered anaerobic lagoon. A portion of the recovered fat is processed into tallow, while the solids are dewatered and used as compost.
In addition to this upgrade, a second project at the Dinmore site was completed simultaneously, involving the replacement of belt presses with HUBER screw presses to dewater the waste activated sludge (WAS). Four HUBER Q800 units were supplied, each capable of dewatering 22 kL/hr of WAS. This installation is one of the largest WAS dewatering plants in Australia, featuring the four HUBER screw presses.
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