When a Central American rum distillery was required to comply with new industrial wastewater discharge regulations, a feasibility study was prepared to identify the most cost-effective solution. The feasibility study included the following: (1) a wastewater characterization program; (2) source emission testing around all unitary processes including utilities, fermentation, distillation, aging, and packing, and; (3) preparing preliminary cost estimates while considering alternative aerobic and anaerobic technologies.
The feasibility study concluded that the facility could substantially reduce its capital and operations costs through the use of water reduction, waste reduction and wastewater segregation initiatives that were specified in the feasibility study. The recommended segregation initiatives were driven by their impact on the capital and operation costs. Based on the feasibility study, the client constructed several anaerobic contact digesters designed to produce biogas, and displace Fuel Oil 3 which was previously burned in boilers to produce steam. The greenhouse gas reductions were estimated, verified, and later sold in the European Carbon Exchange. This project was funded in part by the Canadian International Development Agency under its industrial cooperation program (CIDA Inc).
Project Activities
- Wastewater Sampling
- Source Emission Testing
- BOD and COD Mass Balances
- Order of Magnitude Costs for Aerobic and Anaerobic Technologies
- Pilot Testing
- Baseline Greenhouse Gas Emissions Estimate
- Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reductions under Three Scenarios
- Cost Estimates for a Full Scale Anaerobic Treatment
- Bid Process as Design Build
- Bid Evaluation and Bidder Selection
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