Mushroom Factory

Mr. Dayaratne is the owner of International Canning Factory. He produces canned

mushrooms for export to Japan. Raw materials come from the countryside in 50-kg
bags. The mushrooms are weighed and then soaked in water to remove big particles
of soil and sand. After that the mushrooms will be washed in stainless steel drums 3
times. They are then soaked in 3% brine solution. The mushrooms will then be boiled
for 45 minutes at 100 degrees Celcius and then cooled down by spraying water over
them and soaking them into water. After that the mushrooms will be manually
checked to separate the spoiled one out. They are later washed one more time prior to
canning. The cans will be weighed and filled with brine solution (2% brine, 0.1%
salicilic acid). They will be heated for air removal and then capped. The cans are now
washed and heated for pasteurization. They are cooled down by water and packed for
distribution.
The factory has already built a wastewater treatment facility to treat their
wastewater with the capacity of 160 cubic meters per day. During operation the
neighbors often complain to the factory about bad smell and bad water quality
discharged from the factory. And sometimes it has got warning from officers from the
Department of Environment. The letter of warning is as shown in the following page.
Mr. Dayaratne wants to solve this problem and has contacted Dr. Alwis from
University to make a new design of wastewater treatment plant so that the factory will
be able to treat their waste according to the government standard.
Upon arrival of Dr. Alwis, they start to go through the factory together and
after that there was a meeting in the factory.
 Department of Environment,

Date:

Mr. Dayaratne,
Managing Director,
International Canning Factory,

Subject: Warning of water pollution control facility.

Dear Sirs,

Referring to our visit in your factory on October 10, 1999 in connection with the
aforementioned subject, a composite sample was taken from your factory discharge
point on the river. The sample was analyzed at our laboratory and it was found that
your BOD and suspended solid level have exceeded the effluent standard. The details
of non-compliance are presented as follows:

Parameter Observed Value Effluent Standard

BOD 140 mg/l 20 mg/l

Suspended solid 90 mg/l 30 mg/l

It appears that your existing wastewater treatment plant facility is either inadequate or
functions improperly. This will be our first warning letter requesting you to improve
your effluent quality to meet the effluent standard within 3 months from the stated
date in this warning letter. If your effluent still does not meet our effluent standard
next time, your factory will be temporary closed and also fined according to our
regulation (a minimum of Rs 100,000.00).

If you have any inqueries, do not hesitate to contact us at our office.

Sincerely Yours,

Dr. Somaratne
Director General
Department of Environment
The Transcript of Meeting

After the walk-through survey of Dr. Alwis and Mr. Dayaratne, a meeting has been
called among concerned personnel. Three more staff of the factory too joining the
meeting. Mr. Wijekoon is a process engineer and responsible for all process
development of the factory. Mrs. Gunawathie is the head of the QC section in the
factory and Mr. Henry is a maintenance engineer and also in charge of the wastewater
treatment plant facility of the factory.

Mr. Dayaratne: It gives me great pleasure to welcome all of you to this

meeting. As you know that our factory has got a warning letter
from the Department of Environment concerning the non-
compliance of our effluent water quality. That’s why we have
to invite Dr. Alwis here to assist us in designing the new
wastewater treatment plant so that our effluent will be complied
with the government regulations. I would like to hear Dr. Alwis
opinion about this matter.
Dr. Alwis: Thank you very much, Mr. Dayaratne. After our walk-through
survey I believe your wastewater treatment plant facility is too
small to treat your waste right now.
Mr. Henry: How do you know that our facility is too small because it was
designed by a qualified engineer and it was working perfectly
well in the beginning?
Dr.Alwis: I can see it from the color of your aeration system that there is
not sufficient micro-organisms left in the reactor to digest your
wastewater. That is because your wastewater flow is too high
and it flushes most of the micro-organisms out of the system.
You will have 2 options to select: either to enlarge your
wastewater treatment plant to cope with the waste you generate
or to reduce your wastewater so that your plant can cope with
it.
Mr. Dayartne: Do you think we can reduce our wastewater as we have already
installed our equipment and we can not afford to buy a new
one?
Dr. Alwis Certainly you can do that. Have you heard about GP that was
initiated by APO? This GP methodology can assist the industry
to reduce their waste at sources.
Mr. Dayaratne: Yes, I have heard about it. But don’t you think it’s going to be
very expensive to go through the whole process? Don’t you
think it’s easier and cheaper to enlarge the wastewater
treatment plant and we can get away with this problem?
Dr.Alwis: No, I think to go along with GP methodology will be cheaper
than enlarging the plant, and besides, in the long run you can
even make money from your saving as you don’t have much
waste to treat and you use less raw materials.
Mr. Dayaratne: Yes, I think I agree with Dr. Alwis. I believe we need to look at
the possibility of reducing our wastewater first. I notice that we
use a lot of water in our process in washing our raw materials.
We need to wash our mushroom 3 times before we can boil
them. I think we can reduce this water.
Mrs. Gunawathie: But you have to be careful as the quality of raw materials we
obtain from the villager is quite dirty. We certainly need 3
washes otherwise our product quality may not meet the
standard.
Dr. Alwis: That’s why we should need to do GP first so that we can
improve our productivity and also minimize waste. You may
have to look very carefully to improve your raw material
quality and to recycle some of your wash water for other use. If
you could obtain your detailed information of your factory you
can analyze your problem and identify your solution easier. The
GP methodology can be a useful tool to do that.
Mr. Dayaratne: That sounds good. Is it very difficult to do the GP in our
company? Our staff has never been trained before.
Dr.Alwis: No. It’s not very difficult. You can start with the first one by
forming a GP team and then collect your base line information.
Once you get your information, it will be very easy to see your
problems and opportunity to generate options for GP practices.
Mr. Dayaratne: Yes, I will start with this GP team, but I would like to request
you to be our expert to assist us in working on this GP and
advice us in implementing it.
Dr. Alwis: Yes, I can do that and we will start tomorrow to find the base
line information and plant investigation. Please inform your
staff about this as they will have to work closely with your GP
team.
Mr. Perera: Yes, don’t worry about that. You will get our full support on
this project. See you tomorrow. We are looking forward to
seeing the results.
Information about the Company

Initial Assessment Report

1. Background

International Canning Factory is a medium sized canning firm located in Block

#23, Industrial Park, Hingurakgoda. The factory produces canned mushrooms for
export to Japan. Background information is as follow:

Product: Mushroom,
No. of employee: 300
Total floor area: 1000 sq.m
No. of working days per week: 6
Normal working hour per day : 10

2. Manufacturing Process

The manufacturing process of mushroom canning is as follows: Raw materials

come from the countryside in 50-kg bags. The mushrooms are weighed and then
soaked in water to remove big particles of soil and sand. After that the
mushrooms will be washed in stainless steel drums 3 times. They are then soaked
in 3% brine solution. The mushrooms will then be boiled for 45 minutes at 100
degrees Celsius and then cooled down by spraying water over them and soaking
them into water. After that the mushrooms will be manually checked to separate
the spoiled one out. They are later washed one more time prior to canning. The
cans will be weighed and filled with brine solution (2% brine, 0.1% salicilic acid).
They will be heated for air removal and then closed. The cans are now washed and
heated for pasteurization. They are cooled down by water and packed for
distribution.

2.1 Raw Materials

Raw materials used in the process are as follows:

Raw mushroom 9,600 Kg./day

Salt 450 Kg./day
Salicilic acid 12 Kg./day
Tap water 261.0 Cu.m./day

2.2 Products

Production of mushroom on the day of investigation was 35,125 cans/day.

The labeled net weight of each can is 565.0 grams. The labeled drained weight
of each can is 250.0 grams.
2.3 Wastewater and Solid Waste Generation and Characteristic

Wastewater generation from each process and their characteristic is as shown

in Table 1.

Solid waste generated within the process were as follow:

Broken and spoiled mushrooms. 279 Kg./day

(70% broken and 30% spoiled)
Soil and sand in steeping tanks. 144 Kg./day

2.4 Domestic Water Use

Water use for other activities apart from processing was measured to be about
12.5 cubic meters per day.

2.5 Other Plants information

2.5.1 There are 4 water hose lines used in the process. The first two are at
the mushroom washing area with the size of 50 mm. diameter each.
The second one is at the canning area for cooling, steeping and final
washing , this hose is also 50 mm. diameter. The third one is at the can
washing after can closing; this hose has a size of 37mm. diameter and
using for filling the washing machine and final washing of floor and
equipment. All of them are about 20 meters long.
2.5.2 The draining points of mushroom washing drums to the drain are about
6.0 meters away
2.5.3 Mush room washing area was about 150 sq.m.
Canning washing area was about 200 sq.m.
2.5.4 The layouts of the plant are as shown in Figures 1,2,3,& 4.

2.6 Cost in processing

2.6.1 Raw mushroom 200 Rs/Kg.

2.6.2 Salt 10 Rs/Kg.
2.6.3 Salicilic acid 620 Rs/Kg.
2.6.4 Raw water 30 Rs/Cu.m..
2.6.5 Water supply treatment cost 15 Rs/Cu.m.
2.6.6 Cost of empty can 10 Rs/can

2.7 Retailed price of mushroom can is 125 Rs/can

2.8 Cost of supporting facility

2.8.1 Wastewater treatment cost 55 Rs/Cu.m.

2.8.2 To expand the capacity of WWTP from 160 cu.m./day to 250
cu.m./day will need the investment of Rs 2,350,000
2.8.3 New water hose will cost as follows:
Diameter of 20 mm. 27 Rs/meter
Diameter of 25 mm. 54 Rs/meter
 2.8.4 Spray gun will cost about Rs 800
2.8.5 Floor washing machine:
Model which can wash the floor at the rate of 20 L./sq.m. cost about
19,000 Rs
2.8.6 PVC pipe for draining purpose will cost as follows:
Diameter of 50 mm. 120 Rs/meter
Diameter of 75 mm. 270 Rs/meter
Diameter of 100 mm. 432 Rs/meter
2.8.7 Water storage tank will cost about 2750 Rs/cubic meter
2.8.8 Water pump installation will cost about 55,000 Rs
2.8.9 Mechanical cleaning of mushroom available in the market will be
about 270,000 US$
2.8.10 Two days training course will be about Rs 30,000
2.8.11 One day labor cost is Rs 500/day

Table 1 Wastewater Amount and Characteristic at Each Process

Volume Characteristic
(m3)/day pH Temp SS BOD TKN TP Cl-
(C) (mg/L) (mg/L) (mg/L) (mg/L) (mg/L)

Washing of raw material

1. Soaking mushroom 5.92 6.65 29 21,900 2,488 - - -
2. Primary wash 28.55 7.41 31 2,370 224 - - -
3. Secondary wash 26.40 7.43 30 1,110 220 - - -
4. Tertiary wash 28.72 7.59 30 120 18 - - -
5. Soaking in brine 7.10 6.37 31 250 - - - 10,940
6. Floor cleaning 32.70 - - - - - - -
7. Free discharge from unclosed 6.99 - - - - - - -
valve
Total of washing from 1-7 136.38 - - - - - - -
Production
8. Boiling mushroom 6.68 6.89 88 290 11,980 - - -
9. Spraying 5.32 7.34 53 80 612 - - -
Soaking 41.05 7.00 40 113 1,905 - - -
Washing 8.25 7.14 34 73 726 - - -
10. Leakage in water hose 0.11 - - - - - - -
11. Free discharging due to walking 8.31 - - - - - - -
for valve closing - - - - - - -
12. Can washing 2.10 - - - - - - -
13. Floor cleaning 5.09 - - - - - - -
14. Cooling 21.80 7.07 60 0.57 1.04
Total wastewater from 8-14 98.71 6.59 36 90 142 82 7.6 -

Grand total amount by calculation 235.09 - - - - - - -

1. Draw a process flow diagram for above process

2. Carryout a material balance and water balance
3. Provide three options to minimize / reduce wastewater generation