Improving the wastewater management for a beverage industry with in-plant control

Abstract

In this study wastewater management options were investigated in terms of sustainability for an industrymanufacturing 300 tons of energy drinks daily. A two stage management approach covering both in-plant controland end-of-pipe treatment was adopted for the industry under examination. The characterization of segregatedwastewater streams was evaluated in a way to define the pollution profile and possible reuse alternatives. Whenreuse practices were not employed a wastewater having an organic content of 33,000 mg/l of COD must be treated.Whereas if wastewaters originating from filter cleaning operations were segregated from other wastewater sourcesand passed through a suitable system such as a membrane process, a valuable sugar by-product can be obtained andthe rest of the wastewaters did not require any type of treatment to meet the discharge standards as they containonly 250 mg/l of COD. It was recommended to run a feasibility study to assess whether these effluents can bereused after treated with a membrane system.