Distillery Spent Wash Treatment

Introduction
Distillery effluent or spent wash (SW) is usually considered as waste of distillery processes
and can be classified as a dilute organic liquid fertilizer with high potassium content. In
recent years, due to expansion of distilleries in sugar cane growing countries, the disposal of
SW has become an acute problem.
In India, about 15,000 million litres of spent wash is produced annually from 246 distilleries
which is characterized by undesirable color, foul odor, high biological oxygen demand (BOD:
5,0008,000 mg l1) and chemical oxygen demand (COD: 25,00030,000 mg l1).

The Need for Treating Distillery

Effluent
The distillery sector is one of the seventeen categories of major polluting industries in
India. These units generate large volume of dark brown coloured wastewater, which is known
as spent wash.
The principal pollution effects of the wastewaters of these fermentation industries on a
water course are multiple in natures.
High temperature of the wastewaters may instantaneously kill fish and other aquatic
organisms, thus destroying the flora and fauna of a river, when the wastewaters are
discharged into it.
High concentration of readily decomposable organic matters present in the waste waters.
Due to decomposition of soluble and suspended organic matters present in the
wastewaters, high BOD (Biochemical Oxygen Demand) and COD (Chemical Oxygen
Demand) .
Unfit for propagating fish life and for the purpose of drinking, personal hygiene, recreation
and other purposes.
The distillery effluents, when drained into a water source, make it susceptible for the
propagation of harmful microbes. Thus creating serious biological hazards like the
generation and propagation of the water borne diseases.

IMPACT OF DISTILLERY EFFLUENT

ON ENVIRONMENT
Following are the impacts of distillery effluent on environment:

Discharge of wastewater with high TDS would have adverse impact on aquatic life and to
make unsuitable water for drinking purpose, if used for irrigation reduce the crop yield
,corrosion in water system and pipe line.
Suspended solids in wastewater reduce the light penetration and plant production as
a result in receiving water by increasing turbidity it can also clog the fish gills.
High amount of BOD in the wastewater leads to the decomposition of organic matter under
the anaerobic condition that produces highly objectionable products including Methane
(CH4), Ammonia (NH3), and Hydrogen Sulphide (H2S) gas.
Low Dissolved Oxygen (DO) in water bodies affect the aquatic life as DO drops fish and other
species are threatened and may get killed.
Fall in DO levels causes undesirable odours, tastes and reduce the acceptability of
water for domestic purpose.
In steam generation, DO is one of the most important factors causing corrosion of the boiler
material.

MOLASSES

WATER
DILUTER
YEAST PROPAGATION
FERMENTER

FERMENTER SLUDGE

ANALYSER

RECTIFIER
ALCOHOL

SPENT WASH

SPIRIT RECEIVER

EFFLUENT TREATMENT

ALCOHOL MANUFACTURING PROCESS AND NATURE OF DISTILLERY

WASTEWATER

Alcohol Industry - Molasses and Grain Plants

368 units

Today
focus for multi feed plant
Grain & molasses

192 units

Installed base major

locations :

Maharashtra
UP
Karnataka
Tamil Nadu
Punjab

Alcohol Industry Installed Base

5.3 Billion Ltrs

Today
Grain plants contribute
25% to total operating
base in India

Grain Plants - Major

Locations:

1.9 Billion Ltrs

Figures in Million Ltrs

Maharashtra
Andhra Pradesh
MP
Punjab

Molasses Distilleries - Attached & Standalone

295 Units

192 Units

Today
Standalone Distilleries =
34% of total molasses
base
Standalone units Major
Locations:

Karnataka
Tamil Nadu
Maharashtra
UP

Alcohol Industry Production Growth

Today
2.7 Billion Ltrs

Grain plants contribute

29% to total alcohol
production in India
Grain Plants - Major
Locations:

1.0 Billion Ltrs

Maharashtra
Andhra Pradesh
MP
Punjab

Figures in Million Ltrs

Alcohol Industry - Spent Wash Generation

Today
28.5 Billion Ltrs

Thin Slop generation =

7 Ltrs/ Ltr of alcohol

15 Billion Ltrs

S/W generation=
8 Ltrs/ Ltr of alcohol
Adaptation of various ETP
solutions for s/w or thin
slop volume reduction

Figures in Million Ltrs

1990- S/W quantity = 15 Ltrs/Ltrs of alcohol

Alcohol Industry Fresh Water Requirement

Today
62.5 Billion Ltrs

Fresh Water requirement=

18 Ltrs/ Ltr of alcohol for
molasses plant

34 Billion Ltrs

Fresh Water requirement=

13 Ltrs/ Ltr of alcohol for
grain based plant
Reduce, recycle and reuse
options for fresh water
requirement in distillery
Figures in Million Ltrs

1990- fresh water req. = 34 Ltrs/Ltrs of alcohol

ETP Options Selection Criteria by industry

Distillery effluents can be treated by a number of methods, either singly or in
combination
The selection of the effluent treatment route is dependent upon:- Effluent characteristics (before treatment)

- Requirements of effluent characteristics (after treatment) for recycle

or disposal
- Other factors :
operating economics
initial/capital cost
land and power requirement
ease of operations etc.

Way Ahead...

Perfect existing waste water treatment technologies

Develop innovative technologies which will help to

operate ETP solutions in more economical way

Technology for reducing water footprint to greater extent

Contribute to environment by reducing GHG emissions

Key Challenges Faced by Alcohol Industry

Key Challenges for Indian Distillery Industry
(1) Raw Material -

Shortage of molasses and grain

High prices of feedstock (especially in off-season)
Deteriorating quality of feedstock starch or fermentable sugar
(2) Effluent Management

Effective handling of huge volume of spent wash

Operation during rainy season
Zero Liquid Discharge solutions need of more robust solution

Present Treatment Process

Biomethanation to produce biogas.
Outlet of treated spent wash has following properties:
COD - 30000 - 35000 mg/lit
BOD - 5000 - 8000 mg/lit
Total solids 45000 mg/lit
Color 750000 IU
This is further taken for evaporation!

Why Evaporation?
Spraying spent wash to pressed mud for composting is
allowed by pollution control board and is found to be the
legal way to dispose spent wash.
One factory, as an example produces 45000 MT pressed mud
by crushing about 10 lac MT cane
It has 60 KLPD distillery producing 800 m3 spent wash per
day for 300 days!
1kg pressed mud can absorb 2.5 liter spent wash, thus
volume must be reduced to less than 200 m3 from 800 m3
per day

Present process, unsolved issues:

The problem of color is not solved, in fact it is aggravated by
concentration
Such compost, when used in the field, is likely to leach the color
contaminating water bodies
Huge amount of precious energy is wasted for concentrating the
problem
Spent wash is highly corrosive; equipment used for
concentrating will have to be replaced in few years

VM Biotech technology
for spent wash
Spent wash after treating in biogas digester is feed to this
Novel system.
The technology will produce water with parameters as
follows..
COD less than 10000 mg/lit
BOD less than 1000 mg/lit
Color less than 100 000 IU (Transparent yellow to
brown/red)
And 0.3% solids having about 3100 calorific value

VM Biotech technology
for spent wash
Treated spent wash can be safely used for composting
pressed mud that can absorb about 8 10 liter treated spent
wash per kg pressed mud
Thus entire quantity of treated spent wash is used for
composting, no evaporation.
The composting will be complete as there are no inhibitors
present and will be of International standard and can be
sold at more than INR 8000 per MT

VM Biotech technology
for spent wash
Capital cost to treat 800 m3 spent wash is
about INR 3.80 Cr
Cost of treatment of entire spent wash for year
is about INR 2.40 Cr
Color problem solved completely
No evaporation, thus Saves more than INR 20
Cr per year
Separated solid can generate 4 MW Power
every day
High Quality compost is bonus!

VM BIOTECH Technology ..
Advantages.

Most enviro-friendly treatment process.

Low cost, yielding huge profits!
No water pollution from distillery
No evaporation, saves about INR 20 Cr
Good grade of treated water output.
It can be directly used for making international
grade compost fertilizer.
Problem of color solved completely.
The process generates significant profit to treat
pollution!
VM BIOTECH, Pune, INDIA

VM Biotech technology, flexibility

Treated spent wash can be concentrated using MEV
or RO system to recover water
Finally solids, rich in potash can be recovered as
value added product
Or concentrated liquid can be used for composting

VM BIOTECH, Pune, INDIA