BREWERIES AND

DISTILLERIES EFFLUENT
MANAGEMENT
Akhil Shetty
SID: 13201003
M.E. 2
nd
Sem
Environmental Engineering
BREWING INDUSTRIES
In the food industry, the brewing sector holds a strategic economic position with the
annual world beer production exceeding 1.34 billion hectoliters
Beer is the fifth most consumed beverage in the world behind tea, carbonates, milk and
coffee.
During production, beer alternately goes through three chemical and biochemical
reactions (mashing, boiling, fermentation and maturation) and three solide liquid
separations (wort separation, wort clarification and rough beer clarification)
water consumption, wastewater and solid-liquid separation constitute real economic
opportunities for improvements in brewing
DISTILLERY INDUSTRY
The range of products from distilleries includes Industrial alcohol, rectified spirit, silent
spirit, absolute alcohol, beverage alcohol etc.
Production of ethyl alcohol in distilleries based on cane sugar molasses constitutes a
major industry in Asia and South America.
The worlds total production of alcohol from cane molasses is more than13 million
m
3
/annum
The aqueous distillery effluent stream known as spent wash is a dark brown highly
organic effluent and is approximately 12-15 times by volume of the product alcohol.
It is one of the most complex, troublesome and strongest organic industrial effluents,
having extremely high COD and BOD values.
COMMON CHARACTERISTICS OF
PRODUCTS FROM BOTH INDUSTRIES
Products from both industries are obtained through the biochemical process of
fermentation by yeast, using carbohydrates as the raw material.

All the products contain ethyl alcohol in different proportions.
ORIGIN OF BREWERIES WASTE
Making of beer essentially consist of two stages
Preparation of malt from grains like barley
Brewing the barley

The malt from malt house is then transported to the brewing section, where the wort, the
medium of fermentation is prepared by making a mash of coarse grained malt with hot
water and by transforming the starch to sugar by boiling with hos

Brewery wastes
originate in both
these stages
CHARACTERISTICS OF BREWERIES WASTE
Spent water from steeping process from malt house contains a large amount of organic
soluble solids indicated by a high BOD in the order of 400-800 mg/l and low suspended
solids conc.
Waste from brewing plant contains a high suspended solids and also a high BOD
Malt house waste is alkaline in nature
Brewing plant waste is acidic
COMPOSITION OF MALT HOUSE AND
COMBINED BREWERY WASTE
Malt house waste Brewery waste
pH 6.9 - 9.5 4.0 7.0
COD, mg/l 31 175 30 1225
BOD, mg/l 20 204 70 3000
Total solids, mg/l 428 700 272 - 2724
Suspended solids, mg/l 22 339 16 - 516
Total Nitrogen (N), mg/l 14 - 56 7 42
Brewing process and main waste.
ORIGIN OF DISTILLERIES WASTE
The beverage alcohol industries utilizes different grains, malted barley and molasses as
raw material
The Industrial alcohol industries use molasses (black strap type) exclusively as raw
material
In beverage alcohol industry, the preparation of mash consist of
i. Preparation of green malt
ii. Preparation of cooked slurries of the grain
iii. Mixing of the above two followed by pH adjustment, and nutrient suplimentation
In molasses distillery, preparation of mash consist of
i. Dilution by water to a sugar content of above 15%
ii. pH adjustment to 4.0 4.5 to prohibit bacterial activity
iii. Nutrient addition

CHARACTERISTICS OF DISTILLERIES
WASTE
Spent wash is the major polluting component of the distilleries and it is reported to be 10
to 15 times the final product in volume
Other pollutants includes yeast sludge which is deposited in the bottom of fermentation
vats.
Malt house wastes also contributes towards pollution in beverage alcohol distilleries
Floor washes, cooling water waste and waste from operation of yeast recovery also
contributes.
CHARACTERISTICS OF COMBINED WASTE
AND SPENT WASH
Combined waste Spent Wash
pH 3.9 4.3 3.5 3.65
COD, mg/l 27900 118000 118000
BOD, mg/l 12230 40000 41380
Total solids, mg/l 16640 26000 99000
Suspended solids, mg/l 4500 12000 350
Total Nitrogen ----- 1135
Alkalinity 380 510 ----
Color Dark Brown
DO ----- NIL
Rate of Waste flow 0.9 1.0 MLD ----
EFFECTS ON RECEIVING STREAMS
All the types of wastes discussed earlier are not toxic to the aquatic life of the receiving
stream.
But due to high BOD content, they deplete the DO of the receiving water.
Anaerobic decomposition of organic solids causes nuisance over a fairly long stretch of
the stream.
The condition further deteriorates due to the strong growth of sewage fungi. The dark
color stream renders it unaesthetic.
EFFECT ON SEWERS
Brewery is of comparatively lesser strength, so it can be discharged in a fresh condition
into the sewage to the extent of 3-5% of the domestic sewage.
A strongly acidic or putrefied Brewery waste will disrupt the normal biological activity of
the waste treatment plants.
The very high BOD content of the distillery waste makes it non amenable to the aerobic
biological treatment, and as such it cannot be discharged into a municipal sewerage
system directly.
TREATMENT OF WASTE
Brewery waste being less strong can be treated by aerobic biological treatment, after
screening and neutralization.
Usually, the Biological treatment is accomplished by a two stage process for 90 94% BOD
reduction.
A two stage biological method of treatment consist of an anaerobic treatment, followed by an
aerobic treatment of the waste has been widely accepted.
A single stage digester is adopted for the anaerobic treatment when land availability is
limited.
For BOD reduction of 90.8% a BOD loading of 2.5 kg/m3/ day and detention time of 15 days
is suggested (Subbarao et. al).

Production of H
2
S impairs the anaerobic digestion, as soluble sulphides are toxic to the
micro-organisms. Conversion of sulphides to insoluble ferric sulphides by addition of iron
salts improves the condition
Neutralization of waste help in eliminating odour nuisance
90 95% BOD reduction can be achieved by two stage anaerobic lagoon system
Effluent from digester or anaerobic lagoon has to be further treated in aerated lagoon or
in oxidation ditch.
Aerated lagoon effluent requires further treatment in a polishing lagoon for 24 hours
detention time.

Flow sheet for the treatment of Brewery Waste
Flow sheet for waste treatment of a large Distillery complex
BY-PRODUCT RECOVERY
Segregation of Yeast sludge for animal feed is practiced in some distilleries
Yeast powder of pharmaceutical grade can be obtained from yeast sludge and spent
wash mix
Animal feed is derived from the brewery waste
It has been reported that about 3.85 tonnes of Potash can be derived from about 320m
3

of spent wash.