Page 64 - North American Clean Energy November December 2015

biopower

Brewing Hopportunities: Solid waste management

solutions for high strength brewery streams

by Meredith Cummings

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IN THE RISE OF A MICROBREW ERA, U.S. craft brewers produced an impressive 22.2 million Brewery digester success stories
barrels of beer, resulting in a 22% increase in retail dollars and 18% rise in volume last FX Matt Brewery in New York, one of the nation’s oldest brewing establishments, installed

year. Beer enthusiasts and independent breweries alike rejoice at this microbrew surge, an anaerobic digester in 2013. heir beer residuals, yeast, leftover wort, and other brew
but a growing production of craft brews can be a headache for wastewater treatment plant kettle residuals (which were previously sent to the Oneida County Water Pollution Control
(WWTP) operators and communities tasked with handling the increased wastewater load.
Plant) are now diverted to an equalization tank after the brewing tanks are cleaned. his
he larger load of high Biological Oxygen Demand/Chemical Oxygen Demand (BOD/ equalization tank (see Image 2) normalizes the low from the brewery and stabilizes

COD) level wastewater created from brewing—which includes dissolved brewery waste wastewater before it enters ive digester tanks.
solids like excess malt, yeast, and hops—often requires additional WWTP infrastructure Organics inside the digester tanks are then broken down by anaerobic bacteria, reducing
for processing. And, to the brewers’ dismay, producing more wastewater can be inancially the solids in the wastewater by up to 80% and producing renewable biogas. he result is
burdening for the small breweries charged to dispose of their high BOD/COD waste enough biogas to run a 400 kW electricity generator, reduction of solids in the wastewater,

stream.
as well as savings to the brewery’s energy usage through the generation of on-site energy.
Forward-thinking operations are turning to anaerobic digestion (AD) to combat brewery At the end of the day, 30-40% of FX Matt Brewery’s electricity usage is covered from their
waste disposal issues. Utilizing brew waste through anaerobic digesters generates stable, anaerobic digester.
on-site energy to ofset a brewery’s load requirements. Sustainable energy created from Magic Hat is yet another brewery taking advantage of this technology. he 490,000

biogas reduces brewery carbon footprints while also providing cost stability at a time of gallon anaerobic digester, installed in 2010, extracts energy from the spent hops, barley,
fossil fuel price luctuation.
and yeast, while also processing the Vermont facility’s wastewater. Use of an anaerobic
Aside from creating renewable energy from waste, digesters help solve a brewers bottom digester saves waste disposal and natural gas purchasing at Magic Hat.
line—they ease the burden on nearby WWTP by lowering the strength of wastewater Abita Brewing also joined the energy from waste movement in 2008 with the installation

streams leaving breweries, which in turn lowers community and brewery infrastructure of its 570,000 gallon anaerobic digester. Located in Louisiana, their system converts
costs.
75,000 gallons per day of brewery waste into biogas. his biogas is then fed to the
brewery’s boiler which reduces their operation’s dependence on fossil fuel-derived natural
Anaerobic digestion potential
gas operations.

here has been a steady increase in feasibility study requests to evaluate brewery waste
AD in response to the brewing industry’s growth. To better understand AD potential
Meredith Cummings holds a Bachelors of Science degree from Ithaca College in Biochemistry,
at these operations, every 1 barrel of inished beer creates approximately 3.5 barrels of and a Masters of Professional Studies Master’s Degree in Environmental Science from State

high-strength wastewater. If a common microbrewery makes 2,000 barrels of beer each University of New York (SUNY) College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, NY,
year, this brewery would in turn produce nearly 217,000 gallons of wastewater annually. with her research focussed on a net energy study of a local anaerobic digester. She now works
Additionally, a typical 10-barrel brewery annually generates around 5,000,000 pounds (or in her area of expertise as Application Engineer at BIOFerm Energy Systems. BIOFerm Energy
2,500 wet tons) of spent grain.
Systems is an anaerobic digestion company providing renewable energy solutions to North

Fortunately, spent grain and wastewater make a great feedstock mixture for low-solids American operations.
or small-scale anaerobic digesters.
Energy to power 45 average American homes and heat 60+ can be produced from a 64 BIOFerm Energy Systems | www.biofermenergy.com
kWe digester that processes the typical microbrew scenario of 2,500 wet tons of spent

grain and 217,000 gallons of high-strength wastewater. (Image 1)

Inventory monitoring software
BinMaster’s eBob software is compatible with both solid and liquid level sensors used on bins, tanks and silos. he new program works with a wide
variety of sensors including the 3DLeveScanner, SmartBob cable-based sensors, ultrasonic, magnetostrictive, and pressure transducers used for level

measurement. A single program gathers real-time inventory data from storage vessels and receives automated alerts when levels reach a point of
replenishment or are approaching full status.
he new eBob software allows for coniguring vessels of various shapes and sizes, including horizontal tanks, split silos, and non-linear tanks. Bulk
density properties, as well as strapping tables can be entered for vessels containing solids, while speciic gravity is entered for liquid tanks. Once setup is

complete, vessels can be sorted by name, contents, or alert level and can be easily moved about the screen for sorting based on user preferences.
eBob software helps customers efectively manage inventory levels without having to manually inspect and measure each vessel. he eBob software can
exist on a single PC or installed across a local area network (LAN). he multi-site feature supports any number of sites and vessels across the company
regardless of location. he data from all remote sites resides in a SQL database on a corporate server. he software is compatible with XP Pro, Vista

Business, and Windows 7.
BinMaster | www.binmaster.com

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NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2015