Distillery Industry

Wastewater Treatment
 Introduction

Production of ethyl alcohol in distilleries based on cane sugar molasses. The

world’s total production of alcohol from cane molasses is more than13 million
m3/annum.
The 295 distilleries in India produce 2.7 billion litres of alcohol and generating 40
billion litres of wastewater annually.
The enormous distillery wastewater has potential to produce 1100 million cubic
meters of biogas. The population equivalent of distillery wastewater based on
BOD has been reported to be as high as 6.2 billion. The wastewater from
distilleries, major portion of which is spentwash, is nearly 15 times the total
alcohol production. This massive quantity, approximately 40 billion litres of
effluent, if disposed untreated can cause considerable stress on the water
courses leading to widespread damage to aquatic life.
Overview of distillery industry

• DILUTION– Molasses available from Indian sugar mills

has a solid content varying between 76 and 90%.In
diluter, solid concentration of molasses is brought
down to 20-25o Brix.
• FERMENTATION – Production of alcohol from
fermentable sugars in molasses solution
• SEPARATION – Substrate is separated into alcoholic
solution and yeast sludge by centrifugation. The
recuperation of yeast is important in order to reduce
the organic load of the wastewater.
• DISTILLATION – The produced alcohol is distilled
utilising a counter current of steam Water use
Water used in molasses-based distilleries are:
Process Application
• Yeast propagation
• Preparation of molasses for fermentation
• Water (as steam) required for distillation
• Non-process Applications
• Cooling water
• Treated water for making potable liquor (IMFL) and for boiler use
• Water and steam required for washing
• Wastewater
• Process waste streams
• Spent wash from the analyzer column
• Fermenter sludge
• Spent lees from the rectifier
• Non-process waste streams
• Cooling water
• Waste wash water
• Water treatment plant wastewater
• Boiler blow down
• Bottling plant wash wastewater
• Other wastes
• Spent wash Waste characterstics
• Characteristics of spent lees
• Other environmental problem
• ir Environment
• The air pollutants resulting from Distillery operations will be
SPM, SO2 and Nox emitted from the boiler. The air emission
from the boiler will be dispersed through suitable pollution
control equipments.
Biological Conditions
• Emission of particulate matter along with oxides will affect
vegetation around the unit. The effects may vary from
bleaching of leaves, reduction in effective leaf area for
photosynthesis to adverse damage like death. This could be
overcome by following proper environment management plan.
Noise Impact
• o meet out the industrial noise level prescribed by the Factory Act [90dB(A) for 8hrs working]. Suitable
acoustic measures such as proper engineering design acoustic methods; suitable barriers and enclosures
are proposed to reduce the noise level.
• Solution: Anaerobic treatment
• Prior to the actual treatment steps, some conditioning measures for the spent wash do however have to be
taken:
The high temperature of the spent wash from the distillation process have to be adjusted at least to the
maximum values tolerable for the biologic degradation.
• Flow regulation, mixing  Strong variations in the volumetric flow of the wastewater have to be
compensated by storage/equalization capacities and appropriate dosage/mixing device. The spent wash
should be kept separately from other wastewater streams (cleaning water) in order to ensure maximum
control of its concentration.
• Conditioning of pH-Value The usually low pH-value has to be corrected by neutralization.
• Nutrients, suspended solids : The content of macro-/micro-nutrients and suspended solids usually range
within the tolerable limits for anaerobic bacterial activity. Should the values exceed the limits in individual
cases, these need to be adjusted.
• Suitable anaerobic process
• UASB (Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket) – Reactor Anaerobic reactor with up-flow regime of the treated
wastewater, sludge retention and 3-phase separation for the separation of methane, sludge and treated
wastewater.
• naerobic Filter (Fixed Bed Reactor): Reactor with an inert filter medium
with a high specific surface for on-growth of biomass (today mostly
plastic material), mostly with external separation and recirculation of
sludge.
• Anaerobic Contact Process: Totally mixed reactor with separation and
recirculation of sludge to the methanogenic reactor. The realization of
sludge-degassing improves the sludge consistency for separation.
• Advantages of anaerobic treatment of distillery wastewater
• Environmental aspects
• Prevention of pollution of water and soil
• Mitigation of greenhouse gases
• Reduction of methane emissions
• Reduction of fossil fuel demand
• Socio-economic aspects
• Hygiene aspects
• Nutritional aspects
• Economic aspects
• Fuel savings
• Revenues from energy sales

• Alternative treatment and disposal options for spent wash

• Incineration after evaporation: The water content of the spent wash is significantly
decreased by evaporation, so that the dried substrate is suitable for incineration
containing about 37% of potash as potassium oxide on an average from which potassium
is recovered in the form of potassium salts. This potassium is used as a fertilizer or, with
the addition of chemicals, for the recuperation of K2SO4 and CaSO4.
• The adverse environmental effects of disposal of untreated spent wash are avoided, but
the high energy demand of the evaporation process that will in most cases be met by
using fossil sources of energy should be taken into consideration.
• omposting: In this process, press mud generated from sugar mill is
utilised to produce compost by mixing distillery effluent. Both
anaerobic and aerobic composting systems are practiced. In some
plants composting with treated effluent treated through bio-
methanation plant is also practiced. This system can achieve zero
effluent if the press mud quantity matches with the effluent
generated.
• Spray-irrigation: The spent wash is applied directly to agricultural
land for fertilising purposes. Due to the high organic loading, this can
however lead to undesired accumulation of nutrients in the soil and
to infiltration of soluble components to groundwater.
• Growing of algae and fungus: Owing to its high protein content and
nutritional value, the spent wash can be used as nutritional substrate
for the growing of algae and fungus.