The treatment of brewery wastewater for reuse: State of the art Geoffrey S. Simate a, ⁎, John Cluett a , Sunny E. Iyuke a , Evans T. Musapatika a , Sehliselo Ndlovu a , Lubinda F. Walubita b , Allex E. Alvarez c a School of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, P/Bag 3, Wits 2050, South Africa b TTI - Texas A&M University System, College Station, TX, USA c Department of Civil Engineering, University of Magdalena, Santa Marta, Magdalena, Colombia abstract article info Article history: Received 25 October 2010 Received in revised form 11 February 2011 Accepted 12 February 2011 Keywords: Brewery wastewater Biological oxygen demand Chemical oxygen demand Pretreatment Treatment Reuse The beer brewing process often generates large amounts of wastewater effluent and solid wastes that must be disposed off or treated in the least costly and safest way so as to meet the strict discharge regulations that are set by government entities to protect life (both human and animal) and the environment. It is widely estimated that for every one liter of beer that is brewed, close to ten liters of water is used; mostly for the brewing, rinsing, and cooling processes. Thereafter, this water must be disposed off or safely treated for reuse, which is often costly and problematic for most breweries. As a result, many brewers are today searching for: (1) ways to cut down on this water usage during the beer brewing process, and/or (2) means to cost- effectively and safely treat the brewery wastewater for reuse. Based on the available documented literature, this paper provides a review assessment of the current status of the brewery wastewater treatment processes including potential applications for reuse. Key challenges for both brewery wastewater treatment and reuse are also discussed in the paper and include recommendations for future developments. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Contents 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236 2. Legislation and environmental management systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236 3. Conventional methods of pretreating brewery wastewater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236 3.1. Physical methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237 3.2. Chemical methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237 3.3. Biological methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237 3.3.1. Aerobic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237 3.3.2. Anaerobic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239 4. Treatment of brewery wastewater for reuse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239 4.1. Membrane filtration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240 4.2. Non-thermal quenched plasma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241 4.3. Membrane bioreactor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242 4.4. Combined anaerobic and aerobic treatment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242 4.5. The use of carbon nanotubes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243 4.5.1. Nanosorbents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243 4.5.2. Nanofilters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244 4.6. Electrochemical methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244 4.7. Microbial fuel cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244 4.8. Carbon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244 5. Discussion and synthesis of findings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244 5.1. Comparison of processes and technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244 5.2. Integration of processes and technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245 Desalination 273 (2011) 235–247 ⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: + 27 11 717 7570, + 27 76 112 6959(Cell); fax: + 27 11 717 7599. E-mail address: simateg@yahoo.com (G.S. Simate). 0011-9164/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.desal.2011.02.035 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Desalination journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/desal