Flocculants for Food & Beverage
Specialized Flocculants formulations engineered to meet the operational and regulatory demands of Food & Beverage. Manufactured in our two Cairo facilities since 1977 and shipped to clients across MENA, Africa and Europe.
Flocculants in a food or beverage plant cluster around the dissolved-air flotation unit and the sludge line. ARTFLOC L 53 H, a cationic polyacrylamide emulsion, is the DAF workhorse: food-industry effluent solids — proteins, fats, cell matter — carry a negative surface charge, which is why cationic chemistry typically dominates in this sector. Dosed after the coagulant, it binds pin flocs into a stable float that skims off ahead of biological treatment. ARTFLOC ECO, a quaternary ammonium polymer, adds decolouring and COD reduction where soluble organics or colour drive the discharge problem — relevant to beverage, juice, and confectionery effluent. The DAF float and biological sludge then meet Polyacrylamide (PAM) powder, the conditioning polymer for dewatering equipment. On the intake side, ART FLOC 25 PWG serves process-water clarification with low dosing and direct feed; for any potable-adjacent duty, confirm regulatory suitability at your site through the supplier's documentation. Selection advice specific to this industry: effluent strength swings hard with production and cleaning-in-place cycles, so run bench tests across the full weekly cycle; check each grade's effective pH window against your equalisation performance; and ask about make-down water quality, dose-control strategy during campaign changes, and hygiene-conscious storage of drums and IBCs on site.
Why Flocculants matter in Food & Beverage
About Flocculants
Advanced polymer flocculants for enhanced solid-liquid separation. Improve clarity and reduce sludge in municipal and industrial applications.
About Food & Beverage
Water treatment for food processing, beverage production, and sanitation applications, built on our NSF/ANSI/CAN 60-listed ferric chloride.
What does a flocculant do in a food or beverage plant?
In a food or beverage plant a flocculant is a cationic polymer dosed mainly into the effluent treatment line — after the coagulant on a dissolved-air flotation unit, and onto the sludge before dewatering — to bind fats, proteins and suspended solids into a float or cake that separates cleanly from the water. Its job is to bring BOD, COD, oil-and-grease and suspended solids inside the discharge permit.
Food-industry effluent is rich, variable and negatively charged: proteins, fats, starch, yeast and cell matter all carry negative surface charge, which is why cationic chemistry typically dominates in this sector. The coagulant neutralises that charge; the polymer then bridges the pin flocs into a buoyant mass that micro-bubbles can lift.
DAF chemistry: coagulant first, polymer second, air last
Dissolved-air flotation works by saturating a recycle stream with air under pressure and releasing it into the flocculated effluent, where micro-bubbles attach to the flocs and float them. The chemistry has to be right before the air arrives: the coagulant is dosed at a rapid mix with pH under control, the polymer is dosed after it with gentle mixing, and the flocculated flow then meets the recycle at the contact zone. Dosing the polymer too early, or into the coagulant line, produces weak flocs that shear and sink.
Discharge limits and food-safety systems that shape the chemistry
Two rule sets meet in a food plant's water. Discharge limits — set by the local sewer or surface-water permit — drive the effluent chemistry; the EU Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive's reference values of 25 mg/L BOD₅, 125 mg/L COD and 35 mg/L suspended solids show the order of magnitude a treated discharge is expected to meet. Food-safety systems — HACCP under the Codex General Principles of Food Hygiene and ISO 22000 — govern anything that can touch product or process water, which is why treatment chemicals stored on site are kept out of production areas and why any polymer used on process water must be specified for that duty with the supplier's documentation.
| Duty | Typical polymer | What it removes | Control test |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dissolved-air flotation (effluent) | Cationic polyacrylamide emulsion, after a coagulant | Fats, oils and grease, proteins, suspended solids | Bench DAF cell — float stability, subnatant clarity |
| Colour / COD polishing | Quaternary ammonium polymer, alone or with coagulant | Dissolved dyes, colloidal organics, soluble COD | Jar test — colour and COD removal |
| Sludge dewatering | High-molecular-weight cationic powder or emulsion | Water from DAF float and biological sludge | Drainage / capillary suction time, cake solids |
| Process-water clarification (intake) | Low-dose cationic liquid, direct feed | Turbidity and colloids in raw water | Jar test — settled turbidity; documentation for the duty |
Standards & references
- Directive 91/271/EECEU Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive — Annex I reference discharge values of 25 mg/L BOD₅, 125 mg/L COD and 35 mg/L total suspended solids.
- Codex CXC 1-1969General Principles of Food Hygiene (Codex Alimentarius) — the HACCP framework that governs process water and chemical storage in a food plant.
- ISO 22000:2018Food safety management systems — requirements for any organization in the food chain; the management-system standard most food and beverage plants audit water-treatment chemicals against.
Food & beverage flocculants — frequently asked questions
Why are cationic polymers used in food-industry effluent?
Because the solids are negatively charged — proteins, fats, starch, yeast and cell matter all carry negative surface charge. A cationic polymer both neutralises part of that charge and bridges the particles into a buoyant floc, which is what a dissolved-air flotation unit needs. Anionic grades appear mainly as coagulant aids where an iron or aluminium salt has already reversed the charge.
How should dosing cope with cleaning-in-place swings?
Run the bench tests across the full production and CIP cycle, not on one sample: CIP caustic and acid surges shift pH and effluent strength by large margins. Equalisation ahead of the DAF, pH correction before the coagulant, and a dose-control strategy that follows flow or turbidity keep the polymer in its effective window when the load swings.
Can one polymer serve both the DAF and sludge dewatering?
Sometimes, but rarely optimally. DAF wants a floc that floats and survives the contact zone; a belt press or centrifuge wants a floc that releases water under shear. Charge density and molecular weight differ between the two duties, so plants usually run two grades — confirmed by a bench DAF cell for one and drainage tests for the other.
Are water-treatment flocculants food-safe?
Effluent-side polymers never touch product and need no food-contact status — they are dosed downstream of production. For process water or any potable-adjacent duty the rule is different: the grade must be specified for that use with the supplier's documentation and fit the regulations at your site. Keep treatment chemicals stored outside production areas under your HACCP plan.
Which discharge parameters does flocculation actually move?
Suspended solids, fats-oils-and-grease and the particulate fraction of BOD and COD — the DAF removes what is bound into floc. Soluble BOD and COD need biological treatment or, for colour and dissolved organics, a quaternary ammonium polymer. Reading the permit parameter by parameter tells you which stage must do which job.
Does CHIMI ART supply flocculants to food and beverage plants?
Yes — CHIMI ART Industries supplies cationic polyacrylamide and quaternary ammonium polymer grades for DAF, colour removal and sludge dewatering, alongside the coagulants it manufactures in Egypt (ferric chloride and polyaluminium chloride), with bench testing from its laboratories and technical and safety data sheets for each grade.
Flocculants we supply to Food & Beverage
3 products in this line — every batch certified to international specifications and shipped with TDS and SDS documentation suitable for Food & Beverage compliance.
ARTFLOC L 53 H
Cationic polyacrylamide is a high-molecular-weight, water-soluble polymer used as a flocculant in water and wastewater treatment. ARTFLOC L 53 H is a French-manufactured cationic polyacrylamide emulsion (≥ 30% active content) supplied by CHIMI ART for dissolved air flotation (DAF) units in industrial and municipal plants. It builds large, shear-resistant flocs that attach readily to air microbubbles, improving solids removal and clarified-water quality. Technical data sheets and application support are available.
ART FLOC 25 PWG
Cationic polyacrylamide is a water-soluble polymer flocculant that aggregates fine suspended particles into settleable flocs. ART FLOC 25 PWG is a high-molecular-weight cationic liquid grade supplied by CHIMI ART for drinking water clarification. It combines low dose consumption with a wide effective pH range (4.0-9.0), chlorine resistance and direct-feed capability, simplifying dosing systems and helping plants reduce reliance on inorganic coagulant salts.
Polyacrylamide (PAM)
Polyacrylamide (PAM) is a water-soluble polymer flocculant, (C₃H₅NO)ₙ, CAS 9003-05-8, used to aggregate fine particles into large, fast-settling flocs. CHIMI ART supplies cationic polyacrylamide as a free-flowing powder (≥ 88% active content) in 25 kg bags for sludge dewatering and water clarification in municipal and industrial plants. Correctly prepared and dosed, it improves cake dryness, filtrate clarity and the overall chemical efficiency of the treatment line.
Other industries served by Flocculants
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