Conversion of organic compounds into biogas on a full scale brewery WWTP using IC reactor

Warsaw University of Technology, Faculty of Building Services, Hydro and Environmental Engineering, ul. Nowowiejska 20, 00-653 Warsaw, Poland

^* Corresponding author: katarzyna.umiejewska@pw.edu.pl

Abstract

Wastewater from breweries usually contains high levels of organic components, which are generally easily biodegradable. Ideally, the mainstream method of brewery wastewater treatment is based on biological transformation, which have been reported to be effective in efficiently reducing COD concentration. Anaerobic digestion technology plays an important role in the treatment of high strength wastewater [1]. The benefit of the process is biogas production and recovering the energy. The main goal of the paper is to present the results of a full-scale research performed in a brewery WWTP in 2016. Wastewater from brewery containing COD, a priority pollutant of organic components, is treated in IC reactor. The biogas produced during the anaerobic digestion is transformed into heat. Total COD and soluble COD were measured 5 days a week in wastewater before and after anaerobic reactor. In raw wastewater, average total COD was 5226 mg/L with the percentage share of soluble COD 89.4%. As a result of anaerobic treatment 83,7% reduction of total COD and 92.9% reduction of soluble COD were obtained. The average daily biogas production was 4089 m³/d.