Campaign closed, water saved, and already looking ahead 

As potato starch campaigns wind down at our customer sites, Wafilin reflects on another season of successful water reuse deployments, and looks ahead to a year in which water availability is no longer a background concern, but a frontline production challenge. 

For the potato starch industry, the annual campaign is the heartbeat of the operation, months of intensive processing, high water demand and continuous pressure on efficiency. Each season, several Wafilin customers ran with an integrated membrane-based water reuse system in place.

The results confirm what our pilots and long-term deployments have shown: reducing freshwater intake by 50 to 60 percent is not an ambition. It is an outcome. 

50–60% reduction in freshwater intake per campaign 

400.000 m³ water recovered for reuse at Avebe

UF+RO two-step process, integrated into existing lines 

Built on proven ground: DUCAM 

Our work in potato processing is not new. The foundation was laid with the DUCAM project, a multi-year collaboration with Avebe to develop a sustainable alternative to energy-intensive evaporation of potato juice. Using a combined ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis system, DUCAM recovers clean process water from potato juice while significantly reducing energy consumption and CO₂ emissions. The installation at Avebe’s Ter Apelkanaal site was recognised as Water Innovator of the Year 2021. 

New opportunities

That same technical understanding now underpins our solutions for the broader potato and vegetable processing sector, including french fries producers, where cutting water, washing water and blanching water each present their own treatment challenge. Our modular UF and RO systems are configured around the actual composition of each stream, not a generic effluent model. 

“Water availability is shifting from a utilities concern to a boardroom issue and the window for voluntary action is narrowing.” 

Tightening discharge regulations, rising abstraction costs and repeated summer droughts are forcing the issue. Processors who have already addressed their water footprint are finding it is not just a sustainability credential, it is a production advantage. Those who have not are finding the pressure is building from multiple directions at once. 

Service, optimisation and planning for next season 

With campaigns closing, our teams are already active at customer sites, reviewing membrane condition, analysing operational data and preparing systems for the season ahead. For processors considering a first integration, the inter-campaign window is precisely the right moment: a pilot started now delivers validated design data in time for commissioning before the next campaign begins. 

We look forward to continued collaboration, with existing customers maintaining and optimising their systems, and with new partners taking the first step. Water is becoming more urgent by the season. The technology, and the experience to deploy it, is ready. 

Project DUCAM

Developed with Avebe, DUCAM demonstrated that the complex composition of potato can be treated effectively with membrane technology, at full industrial scale. Read more about DUCAM

• 30% energy reduction 
• 400,000 m³ water reused/year 
• 13,000 t CO₂ saved/year 
• Water Innovator of the Year 2021