Brewery Effluent

AFM pressure filtration of brewery waste water has been evaluated and proved to be very effective process for treating brewery waste water.

Sand filters such as moving bed filters are often used for this application. Moving bed filters are used because it can be very difficult to keep the sand clean and free from bio-coagulation.  Moving bed sand filters are  large and can be very expensive to purchase and maintain.

AFM active filter media has been design to completely resist bio-coagulation and will not permit the growth of bacteria in the filter bed. Regular  Pressure filters in full compliance to the DIN standards should be used with AFM.

Brewery effluent consists of dissolved sugar, alcohol and yeast cells.

 Prior to AFM filtration the water was passed through a wedge wire screen in order to remove the large solids from water. Alternatively a decantation tank may be used.  The clarified water is then pumped to the AFM filters.

Design specifications;

The photograph shows the quality of the effluent entering and leaving the AFM filters.  The tests were conducted on the raw water with no coagulation or flocculation chemicals. An electrocoagulation systems may be useful prior to AFM to further improve the performance.

Virtually all of the yeast have been remove ( 6 to 8 micron particles) leaving only some colloidal matter comprising of yeast cell walls.  The COD of the effluent has been reduced by 70%. on a single pass through the AFM filter.  The back-flush water is sent to a sedimentation decantation tank in order to concentration the yeast sludge. 

An AFM system treating the waste water has a pay back under 1 year derived from savings in trade effluent discharge costs.

example system.