Brewery wastes

Zoutberg, G.R. and Frankin, R., Anaerobic treatment of chemical and brewery waste water with a new type of anaerobic reactor the Biobed EGSB reactor, Water Sci. Technol., 34, 375-381, 1996. 

By 2006, the U.S. had 77 ethanol plants producing more than 3 billion gallons of ethanol per year. Canada produced an additional 60 million gallons. Corn was the feedstock in 62 of the 77 U.S. plants. Other feedstocks included seed corn, corn and barley, corn and beverage waste, brewery waste, cheese whey, corn and milo, corn and wheat starch, potato waste and various sugars. The U.S. had 11 additional plants under construction and 55 proposed. West Central Soy processes soybeans to a food grade oil. Alcohol and a catalyst are then used to produce biodiesel fuel and glycerin. 

Very small quantities of methanol are now consumed in the denitrification of waste water. Methanol is used as a carbon source by bacteria which convert nitrates and nitrites to nitrogen. Methanol is an efficient carbon source and decreases the production of byproducts. The potential requirement for a carbon source for water denitrification is large but the use of methanol is threatened by cheaper feedstocks. One large denitrification plant in the U.S., for example, uses brewery waste as a carbon source. In the future, water treatment plants designed for water denitrification may utilize a less expensive alternate carbon source than methanol. 

TABLE 16.6 Characteristics of Typical Aqueous Brewery Waste Streams"... 

Brewery wastes E. coli Microalgae Sewage Sludge... 

CHAPMAN, J. (1976). Disposal of a Brewery Waste with special reference to the Whirlpool Separator, PhD. Thesis, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. 

Zymophilus Pitching yeast or brewery waste Unpleasant odour Turbidity Acetic acid and propionic acid... 

This section addresses some of the specihc factors pertinent to the use of anaerobic processes as part of a treatment regimen for the management of brewery waste. 

The characteristics of brewery waste will also be affected by the collection system and by housekeeping practice. Where the waste streams are separated according to their concentrations of organic contents, the wastewater from the fermentation and maturation vessels are likely to contain high levels of COD and suspended solids. Baloch et al. (2007) reported concentrations of wastewater from the tank bottoms. 

Where more mixing of various wastewater streams are carried out, the compositions of brewery waste can contain concentration ranges as reported in Tables 19.6 and 19.7. The yeast-enriched wastewater is usually the residues containing excess yeast used in the process. 

Effective co-digestion relies on proper determination of suitable blends that can provide the desired objectives, taking into consideration the biochemical pathways and kinetics of the individual components of the mixture. It is therefore important to be able to predict the outcome of digestion of a chosen waste mixture, and to manage the process carefully. Where one or more of the substrates have no history of successful co-digestion with brewery wastes, it is important to conduct laboratory- and pilot-scale trials to establish suitable design and operational data before embarking on a commercial-scale operation. When a full-scale plant is operational, it is always advisable to maintain laboratory scale models for quick and efficient assessment of... 

Braeken, L., Van der Bruggen, B., Vandecasteele, C. (2004). Regeneration of brewery waste water using nanotiltration. Water Reserach, 3S(13), 3075-3082. 

Janhom, T., Wattanachira, S., Pavasant, P. (2009). Characterisation of brewery waste-water with spectrofluorometry analysis. Journal of Environmental Management, 90, 1184-1190. 

Wen, Q., Wu, Y., Zhao, L., Sun, Q., Kong, F. (2010). Electricity generation and brewery waste-water treatment from sequential anode-cathode microbial fuel cell. Journal of Zhejiang University Science B, 11(2), 87-93. 

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