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INDUSTRIAL WASTE WATER TREATMENT-
DISTILLERY DISTILLERY INDUSTRY Uses molasses, cereals, and other agro products for producing alcoholic beverages. Ethyl alcohol is manufactured by fermenting molasses. Molasses come from sugar manufacturing units, which are either based on sugarcane or beat sugar. Molasses is fermented by yeast after suitable dilution. Product is then distilled to obtain rectified spirit or neutral alcohol. Unwanted bottom product of distillation is called stillage or spent wash or alcohol distillery waste. Distiller waste in the form of spent wash or stillage is one of the most complex, troublesome and strongest industrial organic effluents.
Process block diagram of Distillery
ALCOHOL MANUFACTURING PROCESS AND NATURE OF DISTILLERY
WASTEWATER
In India bulk of the alcohol is being produced from sugar cane molasses. Molasses is a thick viscous byproduct of the sugar industry which is acidic in nature, rich in salts, dark brown in colour and it also contains sugar which could not be crystallized. For manufacturing alcohol, the Molasses is diluted with water into a solution containing 15-16 % of sugars. This solution is then inoculated with yeast strain and is allowed to ferment at room temperature. The fermented wash is distilled in a series of distillation columns to obtain alcohol of adequate/ requisite strength and quality/specification. This alcohol is used for various purposes including potable and industrial. For manufacture of alcoholic beverages, the alcohol is, if required, matured and blended with malt alcohol (for manufacture of whisky) and diluted to requisite strength to obtain the desired type of liquor/ Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL). This is bottled in bottles of various sizes for the convenience of consumers.
S.No. Parameter Range
1. pH 4.3-5.3
2. Total Suspended Solids 12,000-14,000
3. Total Dissolved Solids 45,000-75,000
4. B.O.D., 20 0C, 5 days 40,000-50,000
5. C.O.D. 80,000-1,00,000
The aqueous distillery effluent stream known as spent wash is a dark brown highly organic effluent. It is one of the most complex, troublesome and strongest organic industrial effluents, having extremely high COD and BOD values. Because of the high concentration of organic load, distillery spent wash is a potential source of renewable energy. PRESENT STATUS OF TREATMENT AND DISPOSAL Spent wash treatment is proposed by three different routes currently via; (a) Concentration followed by incineration, (b) Anaerobic digestion with biogas recovery followed by aerobic polishing and (c) Direct wet oxidation of stillage by air at high temperature with generation of steam followed by aerobic polishing. All of these processes are capital intensive. The unfavourable economics make it difficult to implement these treatment processes on the plant scale. Because anaerobic digestion and wet oxidation are less expensive, these alternatives are more attractive. However, there is a need for development of a suitable process with lower investments and higher energy recovery. The methane gas generated in the digesters is used as a fuel to compensate the energy needs of the industry. A general estimate suggests that the cost of an anaerobic biological digester is recovered within 2-3 years of installation because of substantial saving of coal and other fuels.
COST EFFECTIVE RECOVERY METHODS FROM THE DISTILLERY EFFLUENTS
The wastewaters generated during the distillery and brewery operations contain high organic loads. It has a BOD from 30,000 to 60,000 mg/1. So due to this high organic contents, the wastewaters can be subjected to treatment for the production of biogas, composting, aquaculture and potash recovery.
(a) BIOGAS. For the production of biogas from distillery effluent, anaerobic biomethanation of the effluent is adopted, generally. High rate anaerobic technologies are utilized for biogas generation. Fluidised Bed Reactors and Up flow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket (UASB) Reactors are mostly utilized for the production of biogas from the effluents. Some of the biogas production processes being commercial1y established in India at present are:- · BIOTHANE PROCESS: This process uses the UASB reactor for the production of biogas. This is a stable and automatic process with low operational costs. · BIOBED PROCESS: It is similar to Bio thane process. It uses UFB reactors. It needs less installation area and its construction cost is lower compared to any other system o EFFLUENT CHARACTERISTICS Before Treatment After Treatment
Flow m3/day 450 450
pH 4.0 to 4.5 7.0 to 7.8
BOD mg/l 45,000 to 50,000 6,000 to 8,000
COD mg/l 80,000 to 1000,000 25,000 to 35,000
o PERFORMANCE Reduction of BOD % 80 to 85 %
Reduction of COD % 65 to 70 %
Biogas Production Nm3/day 12,300
Specific Biogas Production Nm3/kg of COD degraded 0.4 to 0.5
% of methane in biogas 60 to 65 %
o ECONOMICS Calorific value of biogas 6000 Kcal/ Nm3
Calorific Value of Coal 4000 Kcal/Kg
Coal equivalent of Biogas per day 18.45 tonnes
Cost of Coal at Rs 1800 per tonne Rs 33,210 pd
Annual fuel savings Rs 99.63 lacs
Capital cost of plant Rs 230 lacs
Interest at 15 % on 75 % of the capital cost** Rs 26,73,750
Maintenance costs Rs 2,00,000
Staff Salary Rs 1,50,000
Power 40 KW at Rs 2/- per unit Rs 5,76,000
Total Annual Cost Rs 36,00,000
Net Savings per year Rs 99.36 – 36
= Rs 63.63 lacs
Total Pay back period = 230 / 63.63
= 3 to 4 years.
(b) COMPOSTING 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. ECONOMICS OF BIOEARTH COMPOSTING
Capacity of the Distillery 50 KLPD
Number of working days in a year
In the Distillery 300
In the Composting Plant 275
Generated spentwash 350 KLPD (Biostil Plant)
Solid content in spentwash 17 %
Spentwash to Press mud Ratio 2.5 KL : 1 MT
Man Power Required 50
Culture Requirement 31.5 MT/annum
Press mud requirement 43,000 MT/ annum
Cost of Culture Rs 1.75 lakhs per MT
Cost of Press mud Rs 12 per MT
Man Power cost Rs 50 per day
Capital Cost Rs 175 lakhs (excluding land)
Land Requirement 25 acres
Bio Earth Production 38,000 MT per year
Annual Maintenance Costs 1.5 % of equipment costs
% Costs of Funds 20 % per annum
OPERATION COSTS
Cost of Culture 55.13 lakhs
Average Cost of Funds 17.5 lakhs
Cost of Diesel 11.32 lakhs
Cost of Press mud 5.16 lakhs
Cost of Transportation of Press mud 0.00
Annual Man Power Cost 6.88 lakhs
Depreciation (@ 10 %) 15.00 lakhs
Maintenance 2.25 lakhs
Annual Operational Cost of Compost Plant 113.24 lakhs
Cost of One Metric Tonne of Bioearth =Annual Operational cost of plant
Compost Produced in MT
= 11324000 38000
= Rs 298.00 per MT
NET COST/BENEFIT FOR DIFFERENT SELLING PRICES OF COMPOST
SP of Bioearth Net Cost / Benefit
in Rs in Rs 0 -11324000.00
100.00 -7524000.00
200.00 -3724000.00
298.00 0.00
350.00 1976000.00
400.00 3876000.00
500.00 7676000.00
Net annual cost/benefit of Compost = Sales value of 38000 MT of compost
less annual operating costs
COMPUTATION OF PAY BACK PERIOD
1. SP of Bioearth - Rs 250.00
Initial cash outflow - Rs 17500000.00
Net annual cash inflow - Rs 1738000.00
Pay Back Period - 10.06 Years (17500000/1738000.00)
2. SP of Bioearth - Rs 350.00
Initial cash outflow - Rs 17500000.00
Net annual cash inflow - Rs 5226000.00
Pay Back Period - 3.34 Years (17500000.00/5226000.00)
3. SP of Bioearth - Rs 500.00
Initial cash outflow - Rs 17500000.00
Net annual cash inflow - Rs 10926000.00
Pay Back Period - 1.6 Years (17500000.00/10926000.00)
(c) POTASH RECOVERY
It is done by incinerating the distillery spent wash. The raw distillery spent wash is first neutralized with lime and filtered. This is further concentrated to about 60% solids in multiple-effect forcer circulation evaporators. This thick liquor from the evaporator is burnt in an incinerator and is converted into ash. The dry solids of the spent wash in the form of coke in the incinerator has an average calorific value of 2 Kcal/kg, which is sufficient for supporting self-combustion of the thick liquor in the incinerator. The resulting ash is found to contain about 37% of potash as potassium oxide on an average. This ash is further leached with water to dissolve the potassium salts. Then it is neutralized with sulphuric acid and is evaporated. The potassium salts are crystallized in a crystal1izer. This potassium is used as a fertilizer.
(d) DISTILLERY WASTEWATER UTILISATION IN AGRICULTURE
Being very rich in organic matters, the utilisation of distillery effluents in agricultural fields creates organic fertilization in the soil which raises the pH of the soil, increases availability of certain nutrients and capability to retain water and also improves the physical structure of soil. Mostly the distillery wastewaters are used for pre-sowing irrigation. The post-harvest fields are filled with distillery effluents. After 15-20 days, when the surface is almost dried, the fields are tilled and the crops are sown and subsequent irrigation is given with fresh water. However, the effluent is diluted 2-3 times before application on crops. Apparently, the irrigation with distillery wastewater seems to be an attractive agricultural practice which not only augments crop yield but also provides a plausible solution for the land disposal of the effluents. One cubic metre of methanated effluent contains nearly 5 kg of potassium, 300 grams of nitrogen and 20 grams of phosphorus. If one centimetre of post methanation effluent is applied on one hectare of agricultural land annually, it will yield nearly 600 kg of potassium, 360 kg of calcium, 100 kg of sulphates, 28 kg of nitrogen and 2 kg of phosphates. The distillery effluent contains 0.6 to 21.5 percent potash as K O , 0.1 to 1.0 percent phosphorus as PO and 0.01 to 1.5 percent Nitrogen as N2. The irrigational and manorial potential of distillery wastewaters is given below:
i) Total Volume available in Million m3 /annum : 6.87
