BEWERIES, WINERIES AND DISTILLERIES WASTE

CONTENTS

Introduction

Origin and Characteristics of Breweries Waste

Origin and Characteristics of Wineries Waste

Origin and Characteristics of Distilleries Waste

Effect on Receiving Streams/Sewers

Treatment of the Wastes

By-Product Recovery

INTRODUCTION Beweries and wineries produce beer and wine

respectively, a large number of products of varying origin are obtained in Distilleries.

The range of products from distilleries include industrial alcohols, rectified spirit, silent spirit, absolute alcohol, bevarage alcohol etc., But two things are common in all the products mentioned above: All the above products are obtained through the

biochemical process of fermentation by yeast, using carbohydrates as raw materials,

All the products contain ethyl alcohol in different proportions.

Contd.. In all industries mentioned above, the final

product, the fermentation medium and the unwanted residue obtained at the time of preparation of the medium are all characteristically of high BOD and they present a formidable threat to the environment when discharged either into the water course or onto the land without treatment.

ORIGIN AND CHARACTERISTICS OF BEWERIES WATES

Making of beer essentially consists of two stages: Preparation of malt from grains like barley. Brewing the barley.

Brewery waste originate in both these stages. One being the spent water from the steeping

process from the malt house. In the brewing plant, the major pollutant is the

fermentation reissued or the spent grains. Wastes also originate in the preparation of

yeast suspension

ORIGIN AND CHARACTERISTICS OF WINERIES WASTE

The wineries utilize the fruit juices as the raw materials.

The first operation in any winery is the pressing of ferment table juice from the fruits like grape, mahua etc.,

The waste includes the spent fuits or pomance, wastage of fermentable juices, decanting, spillages floor washes etc.,

Some form of wines, used as intermediates for brandy, are obtained by fermenting the crushed fruits without separating the pomace.

Depending upon the source of the brandy, the waste may have low to very high solid concentration and resembles distillery wastes,, very much.

ORIGIN AND CHARACTERISTICS OF DISTILLERIES WASTE

The beverage alcohol industries utilize different grains, malted barley and molasses are raw materials.

In beverage alcohol industry, the preparation of mash consists of: Preparation of green malt Preparation of cooked slurries of the grains Mixing of the above two followed by pH adjustment and

nutrient supplementation On the other hand in molasses the preparation of

mash consists of: Dilution by water to sugar content of about 15% pH adjustment to 4.0-4.5 to prohibit bacterial activites Nutrient addition

Contd.. The spent wash is the major polluting

component of the distilleries and it is reported to be ten to fifteen times the final product in volume.

The other pollutants include yeast sludge, which deposits at the bottom of fermentation vats.

In most of the distilleries in India this yeast sludge is mixed with spent wash and discharged.

EFFECT ON RECEIVING STREAMS/SEWERS

All the above 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 dissolved oxygen of the receiving water.

Brewery waste, which is comparatively of lesser strength may be discharged in a fresh condition into the sewers to the extent of 3-5% of the domestic sewage.

The very high BOD content of the distillery waste makes it non amenable to the aerobic biological treatment and such it cannot be discharged into municipal sewerage system directly.

TREATMENT OF WASTES

BY-PRODUCT RECOVERY The yeast sludge from the distilleries contain

the degradation product of the dead yeasts and organic debris form the malts like proteins, fats, vitamins and carbohydrates.

On the other hand the spent wash contains all the above nutrients plus unfermented sugars, amino acids, caramels, ammonium phosphates etc.,

So two types of by products viz. the nutrient rich animal feed and the potassium rich fertilizers may be recovered in a distillery

Contd.. What ever may be the desired by-product the

liquid waste is first screened, evaporated and then dried.

Dried screen wastes are known as “dried distilleries grains”.

The evaporation and concentrating of soluble waste is accomplished in different type of evaporators.

The concentrated waste is then dried on conventional spray or drum dryers. The product is known as “Dried Distilleries Soluble”, which is normally called as animal feed.