Environment

Pioneiro Group invests in innovative reuse system

Concern about water is something that recurs in practically every industrial activity, especially in food activities such as poultry farming, which has increasingly involved initiatives around the topic. An example of this is the Pioneiro Group, an industrial complex in the north of the state of Paraná (focused on food production, especially poultry and its derivatives) which carried out a series of investments, training and engineering actions that transformed its units into a performance reference. in water management.

The heart of this operation is in the Water Management Department, a department created within the company exclusively for the water management of the units. This is where every drop used is counted. The Water Treatment Station (ETA) and the Effluent Treatment Station (ETE) are also operated and monitored there.

The ETE – a highly compact and modern infrastructure, which occupies a total area of less than 5,000 m² – is the place where all effluent generated in its industries is treated. The process is done in four steps:

1- Previous treatment, which is done with fine capture sieves;
2- Primary treatment, which is carried out in diffuse air floaters;
3- Secondary treatment, carried out by an integrated sludge system activated by prolonged aeration;
4- And finally the tertiary treatment, carried out by an ultrafiltration membrane – one of the first used in the activity in Latin America.

One of the main differences of this structure is the low area occupation, which was only possible due to the fact that its model, with optimized structures, eliminates the need for lagoons or anaerobic treatment.

The Water Management department also has what the company calls the Water and Effluent Laboratory (LAEF). It is a broad infrastructure for carrying out the operational monitoring analyzes necessary for the system to be excellent.

According to Claudio Henrique Dias, Sustainable Development and Environment Manager at Grupo Pioneiro, the sum of all these actions with a highly prepared and qualified team results in continuous efficiencies exceeding 99% in the treatment of effluents which, in his words: “It’s how we take the effluent to the margins of potability”, he explains.

Once the stability of this quality was guaranteed, the next step was the implementation of a unique reuse system. In it, the effluent treated with more than 99% efficiency is, in part, transferred to two waterproof lagoons that function as surface recharge. It is here that water from local springs and courses is incorporated, which is then captured by the company’s ETAs. These treatment stations carry out the process of making the water potable, which, after being treated, filtered and chlorinated, is transferred to industrial plants, for use in conjunction with the supply from artesian wells.

All the quality of this water is monitored by the Federal Inspection Service of the Ministry of Agriculture and complies with all sanitary, physical-chemical and microbiological standards, which allows its use without the need for segregation – unlike what happens with reuse systems. traditional processes, in which water necessarily needs to be directed to less “noble” processes due to their risk.
The modernity and efficiency of the process transformed the Pioneiro Group system into a case, which is reverberated throughout the agro-industrial chain. “The company is open for visits and just as it has already helped other companies, it believes that being sustainable and contributing to society is a sincere goal”, he highlights.