Anaerobic treatment of brewery wastewaters with the turbulent bed reactor.

Fuchs, C.B.

Abstract
The effluent treatment plant at Interbrew, Armentieres, France, took its current form in 1992, and consists of a 17600 cu ft acidification/homogenization tank, a second tank of the same size and type occasionally used as a buffer tank or emergency overflow tank but normally empty, a neutralization facility, a heat exchanger which heats the effluent to 99 degrees F, two "Anaflux" turbulent bed anaerobic bioreactors, an activated sludge type aerobic treatment unit and sludge treatment facilities. The annual volume of effluent treated is about 132 million gallons. About 90% of the original COD of the effluent is eliminated by the anaerobic treatment, which generates methane rich "biogas" for use as fuel in the boilerhouse. The final aerobic treatment eliminates a further 9%, so that the treated effluent retains only 1% of its original COD. The sludge generated by the aerobic treatment is mixed with spent kieselguhr from the beer filters before dewatering, in order to obtain a drier final product (35% dry matter).
Keywords : aerobic anaerobic brewery effluent treatment equipment fuel gas performance production