Beverage industries pollutants

Dried distillers grains (DDG), a co-product of the distillery industry is abundant in Minnesota. About 98% of the DDG in North America comes from com plants that produce ethanol for oxygenated fuels. The remaining 1-2% of DDG is produced by the alcohol beverage industry. Approximately 3.2 million metric tons of DDG are produced in North America annually. In recent years, some regions of the USA, especially the Midwest, have required more use of oxygenated fuels (e.g., ethanol-gasoline blends) to reduce air pollution... 

Sulfites occur naturally in very small concentrations in the earth and in the atmosphere, and they are a natural ingredient in certain vegetables, foods and beverages as a result of endogenous fermentation by the yeasts in beer and wine (Taylor et al., 1986). Sulfites also occur naturally in the human body (Taylor et al., 1986 Adams, 1997 Food and Drug Administration [FDA], 2000), and they can be found in greater concentrations in natural waters or wastewaters as a result of industrial pollution, and in treatment plant effluents dechlorinated with sulfur dioxide, or as a consequence of volcanic activity, etc. 

Several industrial systems involve emulsions, of which the following are worthy of mention. Food emulsions include mayonnaise, salad creams, deserts, and beverages, while personal care and cosmetics emulsions include hand creams, lotions, hair sprays, and sunscreens. Agrochemical emulsions include self-emulsifiable oils that produce emulsions on dilution with water, emulsion concentrates with water as the continuous phase, and crop oil sprays. Pharmaceutical emulsions include anaesthetics (O/W emulsions), hpid emulsions, and double and multiple emulsions, while paints may involve emulsions of alkyd resins and latex. Some dry-cleaning formulations may contain water droplets emulsified in the dry cleaning oil that is necessary to remove soils and clays, while bitumen emulsions are prepared stable in their containers but coalesce to form a uniform fihn of bitumen when apphed with road chippings. In the oil industry, many crude oils (e.g.. North sea oil) contain water droplets that must be removed by coalescence followed by separation. In oil slick dispersion, the oil spilled from tankers must be emulsified and then separated, while the emulsification of waste oils is an important process for pollution control. 

As discussed above, chirality exists everywhere in the universe and hence it plays a vital part in some aspect of our lives. The consideration of chirality aspect is very important in the environment and some industries, particularly the pharmaceutical, agrochemical, food and beverages, and petrochemical industries. We have already discussed the importance of chirality in environmental pollutants, as the different enantiomers of the pollutants have different toxicities. In the pharmaceutical and dmg industries, the existence of chirality became particularly important in the wake of the thalidomide tragedy in the 1960s. 

As mentioned earlier, liquid-solids separation technology is basic to many manufacturing industries (chemical, mineral, food, beverages, etc.) as well as to pollution abatement and environmental control. It is difficult to find any important engineering enterprises in which liquid-solids separation does not play an important part. Major industrial and commercial applications of four key unit operations for liquid-solids separation are summarized here ... 

It is apparent from the literature that the numerous sources of Pb result in widespread environmental pollution and contamination of food and beverages."" Further, when exposure to Pb occurs in the workplace the potential for Pb intake increases considerably. The prevalence of occupational Pb exposure in a wide range of American industries was well-established over 40 yr ago, with estimates that approximately 1.5% of all workers were exposed to significant amounts of Pb. Similar estimates of occupational Pb exposure have been recently made in Finland " and Denmark. Grandjean has compiled a summary of those industrial settings that hold the potential for exposure to hazardous levels of Pb as well as those with less significant levels of exposure. 

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