PH in Sewer effluents

[Carlos Yanez]

I'm putting together my first 8.5 bbl brewery and I already have the Health Department asking me how I'm going to treat my sewer effluents to be between a PH of 5.5 and 10.
My CIP system is a dual tank closed loop, acid sanitizer on one and caustic on the other. Ones I'm done cleaning could I mix both chemicals to get in the PH range? What about the final rinsing, or disposing yeast or cleaning the mash tun?
I can still install a sump pit to increase the volume of the effluents but I don't want to get into expensive automatic ph adjusters...
Any thoughts?
Thanks in advance
Carlos

[liammckenna]

More than likely, your average pH will be below 5.5.

I would suggest buying some low grade caustic with a rugged pH sensor and small peristaltic dosing pump.

We did this in a brewery in Ontario where the local water authority was anxious about our pH.

We had a central 'pit' where all of the floor drains met before joining the sanitary sewer on the way out the building.

It was a 25hL system operating 24 hours per day and we consumed an average of about 10 L of caustic per week to neutralize our effluent.

If you had a big holding tank I suppose you could save your spent caustic cleaning solution(s).

Pax.

Liam

[Carlos Yanez]

Ph in sewer effluents

Hi Pax, thanks for your reply, it's been a while...

How big of pit do you have for your 25bbl system? How many batches do yo brew a day?

Do you have a sump pump that empties the pit automatically?

Thanks

Carlos

More than likely, your average pH will be below 5.5.

I would suggest buying some low grade caustic with a rugged pH sensor and small peristaltic dosing pump.

We did this in a brewery in Ontario where the local water authority was anxious about our pH.

We had a central 'pit' where all of the floor drains met before joining the sanitary sewer on the way out the building.

It was a 25hL system operating 24 hours per day and we consumed an average of about 10 L of caustic per week to neutralize our effluent.

If you had a big holding tank I suppose you could save your spent caustic cleaning solution(s).

Pax.

Liam

[liammckenna]

Interception chamber was about 2-300 litres.

Liquid entered through one side at the top of the chamber. Effluent left the opposite side of the chamber at the same height. Solids tended to settle out before effluent left chamber.

We pumped solids out of the chamber every other day.

We were brewing 22 brews a week on a 24 hour basis and 5 day work week.

Cole Parmer can supply pump and pH sensor etc.

We didn't need a sump to empty chamber automatically because of the grade we had in the drainage. It would have been nice to have a pump in place to deal with solids disposal.

Pax.

Liam