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Real World BOD levels

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  • Real World BOD levels

    Hi all.

    We are waiting for a sewer permit from the municipality in which we are going to build and expand our existing brewery. This is a rural municipality that has a medium sized waster water treatment plant. Obviously, they have some concerns as to how much waste water we will generate and where our BOD levels will be. We have done some calculations with industry standard numbers and have determined we will need to do a significant amount of side streaming and also install 2 very large buffer tanks that will act as holding tanks and will periodically discharge our waste water into the system. At this point, we will be using a centrifuge for filtration saving the yeast from the separation and having it trucked off site for use by a farmer. We also will be pumping trub from the boil back into the lauter tun which then then be removed as well being integrated into the spent grain. This is a 60bbl brewhouse with projections of 20,000 bbls in the first year and increasing from there with a goal to max out at 60,000. My question is this, does anyone have BOD levels of their waste water that they are willing to share AFTER this amount of side streaming? I know yeast and trub alone count for almost 95% of BOD levels in the process, but this municipality is asking for detailed numbers of what our levels will be post side streaming. Since we are not built yet, I have no way of testing or knowing what this could be. Any help is appreciated.

    Thanks.
    Tim Butler

    Empire Brewing Co.
    Syracuse, NY

  • #2
    Bod

    I might be a little off in my thinking but honestly, I think you should contact the governor's office and demand that if they're promoting business in New York they should assist with this sort of thing. Breweries like other manufacturers have enough on their plates and just being diligent about treating and in some cases recycling your waste water should be considered a plus by municipalities. Let them send someone to educate the staff on how to monitor and treat the BOD levels rather than put the onus on us for complete treatment. More to the point, it's another expense.

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    • #3
      Tim,

      Down in Sunny NC this week, but I think I may still have the report I generated for the wastewater treatment facility when we opened CB's. Give me a shout next week and I'll try and dig it out.

      My guess is that you will be in the 1500-2000 mg / l . One factor you may need to discuss with them is lb BOD vs. a concentration. mg / l will vary greatly with how efficient your use of water is. If you are very efficient then the BOD concentration may be higher (less dilution) but your lb of BOD discharged into the system does not change with dilution.

      Given the size of the brewery you are putting in in a fairly small municipality, you may be required to do some pre-treatment. This is an issue that will be a large one moving forward with many breweries, especially those in areas that have smaller treatment plants as they may not be able to handle the additional load of a brewery.

      Cheers,
      Dave
      David Schlosser
      Brewmaster / Founder
      Naked Dove Brewing Company
      Canandaigua, NY

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