Development and Introduction of a High-Rate Anaerobic Process for Brewery Wastewater Treatment

By Fumio Yoshika, K. Yokoyama, M. Tokuda, H. Naito, H. Taguchi and M. Yoda Suntory Brewery, Ltd., Musashino Brewery, Tokyo, Japan. Kurita Water Industries, Ltd., Tokyo, Japan. This paper was originally presented at the MBAA 112th Anniversary Convention, Keystone, Colorado, 1999.

Abstract
The upflow anaerobic sludge blanket, UASB process, including the expanded granular sludge bed, EGSB has been widely used for treat-ing brewery wastewater. We have developed an innovative high-rate EGSB type anaerobic reactor, which can maintain granular sludge with extremely high-biomass concentration under much higher organic and hydraulic loadings than regular UASB reactors. Full-scale reactors have been introduced at the Tonegawa and Musashino Breweries and the following results have been obtained: 1. The significant decrease in operation costs due to the reduction in power requirement and excess sludge production, along with the utilization of biogas as fuel for the boilers. 2. The significant contribution to our activities of minimizing the negative effects to the global environment.
Keywords: aerobic treatment, anerobic treatment, UASB, EGSB, granules, gas/solid seperator, grinding  

Sintesis
El proceso anaerobio de control de cieno de flujo ascendente, o proceso UASB, incluyendo el lecho secador para cienos granular ampliado, EGSB, ha sido usando ampliamente para el tratado de aguas de desecho de las cervecer�as. Nosotros hemos desarrollado un innovador reactor anaerobio de alto grado tipo EGSB, el cual puede mantener el cieno granular con concentraciones de biomasa extremadamente altas bajo cargas org�nicas e hidr�ulicas mucho mas altas que los reactores UASB regulares. Reactores a gran escala fueron introducidos en las cervecer�as Tonegawa y Musashino y se obtuvieron los siguientes resultados: 1. La disminuci�n significante en los costos de operaci�n debido a la reducci�n de los requisitos de energ�a y la producci�n de cieno excesiva, as� como el uso de biogas como combustible de los calentadores. 2. La significante contribuci�n a nuestras actividades de reducir al m�nimo los efectos negativos al medio ambiente global.