MSE Hiller supply Birdseye for pea processing wastewater effluent

20 July 2020

With tightening legislation and permit standards, Birdseye approached MSE Hiller to develop a system to treat 400m3/h of their water leaving site.

MSE Hiller, was tasked to design, build, and operate the wastewater treatment plant for Birdseye, the largest UK pea producer, in Hull. Against a tight deadline the plant was brought on-stream in the middle of June in time for this year’s pea season.

Birdseye are one of the largest pea processors in the World, processing and freezing around 50,000t of peas/year during the harvest season which typically runs from June to August.

Their facility at Hull is situated in the centre of a 30-mile radius of 200 growers, allowing the peas to be picked, transported and frozen in the shortest possible time frame.

During the pea season, the factory processes 1,000t of peas, 24-hours a day.

Associated with this is water which is used to wash the peas and as fresh water needs to be used the wastewater was traditionally treated by the local water company.

The recovered suspended solids are disposed of as a dry stackable cake at up to 60% dry solids and is suitable for transportation off site by normal skip / trailer.

With tightening of legislation and permit standards, Birdseye asked MSE Hiller, to develop a proposal to treat 400m3/h of their water leaving site.

The space constraints on site and the short project timescale was going to be a challenge, but a proactive project team was assembled, including the client and site operator, to ensure a timely delivery of the project in readiness for the 2020 season.

With only a few days to spare before the pea season began, MSE Hiller delivered the completed plant on time and to budget, despite the challenges of building a large process plant during the Covid-19 outbreak.

Ivan Fomin, Managing Director at MSE Hiller explained “The client trusted us to deliver this solution and worked positively and proactively to help us achieve the target. It is great to see what solid teamwork can achieve under challenging circumstances”.

This article also appears as a case study on the MSE Hiller website here.