Dilution Tank for cleaners

[stbenjamin]

I visited a new brewery recently and they had a large plastic tank that they used to collect all of the run off from cleaning so that the acid, caustic and alkalines could mix and then go down the drain at a more moderate pH. Is this common practice in breweries? I hadn't seen this before. It did require a sump pump to work.

[CaptainEBC]

We do the same thing. Most cities have pH limits for discharge. We'll pour the acids or bases into a 30 gal. drum and when it's full, adjust the pH with either more acid or base, then pump it out to the drain and log the pH and amounts.

[dick murton]

It might not be common amongst true micro breweries, but it is a sensible option if this means you can keep within the consent limits, and dilture out high solids loadings such as normally seen at the start of FV and brewhouse cleans. It also will allow you to trickle stuff down the drain over a longer period, so if you have flow metering it will reduce the peak flow - though I expect this will really only apply to larger breweries, not something like a 10 to 30 brl unit.