Brewery wastewater is characterised by a high sugar content and either a clear or golden-yellow colour. In addition, hop resins and solids such as husks mix into the wastewater. This results in an increased BOD5. With CIP activities there is also a high concentration of cleaning chemicals.
Brewery wastewater
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Characteristics of brewery wastewater
Brewing industry overview
The brewing industry has changed in recent years. The consumption of mixed beer drinks has developed significantly. In contrast, the consumption of traditional beer has remained almost constant or slightly decreased. This is mainly due to the ever-increasing variety of beer-mixed drinks and the rising prices of raw materials, which causes beer prices to steadily increase.
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In addition, more and more microbreweries are entering the market. The craft beer industry and the demand for craft beer are growing steadily. Especially in urban areas, this trend is strongly established. In craft beer centres like Berlin or London, the consumption of craft beer is over 10 percent. Very few of these microbreweries have their own wastewater treatment plant, as they either do not have the space for it or rent into community breweries to brew their beer there. This brewery wastewater usually flows into the municipal sewer system and thus into the municipal sewage treatment plant.
Wastewater generation in breweries
The production of beer requires a great focus on hygiene and cleaning, as beer is a particularly sensitive foodstuff. During the brewing process, foreign bacteria or yeast cultures can settle into the mash and thus render the beer unusable. Since the brewing process of a batch of beer can amount to 100,000 hectolitres, the loss of any batch must be avoided.
Therefore, the use of wash water is a crucial part of maintaining hygiene in a brewery. Depending on the brewery’s level of industrialisation, between 3.5 and 6 litres of water are used to produce one litre of beer.
The wastewater is mainly produced in four areas: the cleaning of the brewing utensils and the production building, as well as bottle cleaning and pipe cleaning. Bottle cleaning and the cleaning of brewing utensils such as kettles, pans or storage tanks produce most of the wastewater. Therefore, sugar, dyes, hop resins, husks and cleaning chemicals are the main substances mixed into the brewery wastewater.
Wastewater categories in breweries
Brewery wastewater can mainly be divided into three categories: Process water, cooling water and sanitary wastewater. Cleaning water arises in different areas, which is why it can carry different types of contamination.
Process water
This is wastewater that is produced during the production of beer. It comes from the cleaning of the boilers, pans, and storage tanks, which are cleaned either via a CIP process or manually using high pressure, or from the mostly fully automated bottle cleaning and the cleaning of all pipelines and production facilities. This type of wastewater usually contains high concentrations of organic substances, nitrogen, phosphorus, and cleaning chemicals.
Cooling water
Cooling the wort is a crucial component in the production of beer. Since the hops are boiled down over several hours, but the yeast ferments at temperatures between 8 and 22°C and these two process steps take place directly one after the other, the wort must be cooled down to the optimum fermentation temperature. The cooling water used in this process usually contains little organic contamination but may have a concentration of metals.
Sanitary wastewater
Sanitary wastewater is produced using toilets, washbasins, and showers. The sewage is usually very biodegradable, and the wastewater also contains residues of cleaning agents or soaps.
| Value | COD | BOD5 | Ntot | Ptot | NaOH50% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| mg/l | 4.000 | 2.000 | 250 | 100 | 4.550 |
Types of beer
The type of beer brewed has no influence on the contaminant load of the wastewater. Both barley malt and wheat malt, as well as the different processing variants such as roasted malt or smoked malt, mainly release starch, turbidity, and colouring substances. The hop varieties used also have no influence on the quality of the wastewater.
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Both industrial breweries and small breweries have to pay attention to perfect hygiene in the brewing process. Since industrial breweries often use a precisely defined CIP process to clean the kettles, pans and tanks, the concentration of the pollutant load is often higher than in microbreweries. These use high-pressure cleaning equipment to clean their brewing equipment, which is why the pollutant load is often diluted. However, this has no influence on the actual degree of contamination.
Impact of brewery wastewater on the environment
Brewery wastewater can have a significant impact on the environment if it is not adequately treated. First and foremost, this would have a strong negative impact in the vicinity of the brewery, the nearest receiving waters, and the groundwater.
When brewery wastewater is disposed of by direct discharge into the environment, it is water bodies that can suffer. This is due to the high content of organic substances and nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus. If brewery wastewater is discharged untreated into rivers or lakes, it can lead to overfertilization. The result can be an exponential growth of algae, which leads to a reduction of the oxygen content in the water. This can negatively affect the fish population in the water bodies.
However, brewery wastewater not only pollutes water bodies, but also impact on groundwater. The organic substances can accumulate in the soil and cause long-term damage – especially if the brewery is located near a well or spring.
Pollution of brewery wastewater is also related to the degree of industrialisation of the brewery. Since industrial breweries rarely offer naturally cloudy beers, but mainly clear filtered beers, they need a filtration medium to filter out the naturally occurring turbidity in the beer. In practice, three filtration media have proven successful: PVPP, diatomaceous earth and bentonite. All three media are a powdery additive that binds the turbidity substances together into larger particle sizes, making it easier to filter them out of the beer. When cleaning the filtration media, the powdery additives can be carried away with the alluvial water. It is therefore important to remove these substances from the wastewater before they enter the environment or the sewage system.
Summary
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The treatment of brewery wastewater is complex, as the different processing steps where the beer is brewed can have a significant impact on the wastewater.
Therefore, it is crucial to know the exact composition of the wastewater to select the best and most efficient treatment solution.
We can help you analyse your brewery wastewater and advise you on treatment options. With our solutions, we give you a 100 percent process guarantee that our system will meet the required discharge values. We also consider fluctuating wastewater volumes and variable pollution loads.
If you would like to know more about brewery wastewater treatment processes, you can read on here. If you have any queries, concerns or would like to request a non-binding quotation, please do not hesitate to contact us.
