UTILIZATION OF BRINE FORM MEAT PROCESSING INDUSTRIES - CURRENT PRACTICES AND DISPOSAL COSTS - FUTURE TREATMENT METHODS

The German meat industry produces 140,000 tonnes of raw salted product s annually from 120 companies. This production yields 14,000 m(3) of h ighly laden organic and inorganic brine solution which, by and large, is disposed of down the sewerage system. Municipalities levy surcharge s for highly polluted waste streams and the introduction of brine into the sewerage system incurs effluent charges of 180 DM/m(3) on average . In the medium term, charges of 300 to 900 DM/m(3) can be predicted. The reasons for these costs are the two variants for the utilisation o f brine solutions which are being proposed and discussed. Variant I in volves the drying of the brine with usage of the residue as landfill i n mines. This first variant ist standard for liquid effluent and incur s costs of ca. 280 DM/m(3). Variant II ist directed at material utilis ation of common salt contained in the brine. The necessary method for this variant was developed on our laboratory experiments. The estimate d costs here are ca. 210 DM/m(3). Possible utilisation routes for the solid materials and the purified common salt were proposed. For both v ariants, the costs of treating the brine-specific effluent were compar ed. According to the comparison, the treatment of brine from businesse s having high pollution surcharges is to an increasing degree becoming economical. Whether a company producing brine waste can reduce efflue nt costs by using one of the proposed variants depends on many industr ial factors and must be proven for each individual case.