Breweries tend to produce large quantities of wastewater, the natural byproduct of the brewing process. Surprisingly, this wastewater can be very harmful to the environment, as it’s usually dense in sugar, alcohol, and other residuals that cannot simply be released untreated. For this reason, breweries must place rigorous wastewater treatment processes in place.

 

This can be easier said than done. Brewery wastewater treatment usually involves an aeration process, which requires advanced technology, lots of power, and high electricity costs. Nevertheless, it’s crucial for breweries to find a way to treat their effluents effectively, avoiding any regulatory non-compliance.

 

So, what should breweries know about managing their wastewater treatment process? Here are a few guidelines to keep in mind.

 

Tips for Brewery Wastewater Treatment

• Breweries must meet discharge limits. If you send your wastewater into the local sewer system, then you need to make sure you comply with local limits and prohibitions. The specifics can vary by municipality.

• It’s crucial to manage total suspended solids (TSS). Spent yeast, hops, and barley can potentially clog the sewage system. Breweries that release them into the local sewer may be subject to fines or other regulatory penalties. Be sure your wastewater treatment process involves the filtration of solids.

• Acidity is also an issue. Brewery wastewater often has a high level of acidity, which can corrode storage containers and also damage sewer systems. It’s important to check local limits on wastewater pH level, properly aerating wastewater to keep that acidity level in check.

• Temperature matters, too. Discharging wastewater at a high temperature can also present some complications, resulting in regulatory concerns. Again, it’s important to check the local municipality’s guidelines and restrictions.

• Seek a discharge permit, as needed. Depending on the size of your brewery and the amount of wastewater you discharge, you may need to apply for a local permit. The local sewage and wastewater management system can provide further information.

• You may also need to install an access point. Some municipalities will require you to have an easy-access monitoring point, allowing representatives of the city or county to come take samples or test your wastewater at their convenience.

 

Find Out More About Brewery Wastewater Treatment

 

Every brewery must be strategic and intentional in its wastewater treatment efforts, ensuring in-house efficiency but also legal compliance. Having the right technology can certainly help. To learn more about effective wastewater treatment for your brewery, reach out to the national experts at PHS. We have decades of experience in this field and are happy to tell you more about customizable technology solutions.

Within the automotive industry, water is used in countless ways. For example, automotive plants use water to:

 

• Wash products, equipment, and parts.
• Cool down air conditioning units and boilers.
• Run spray paint booths.
• Provide new vehicles with surface treatments.

 

These are just a few examples among many. Because the automotive sector uses so much water, and for such a wide range of applications, it goes without saying that auto plants produce a large amount of wastewater. And while this is a natural result of industrial activity, it presents automotive companies with some unique challenges.

 

Handling Wastewater in the Automotive Sector

 

The big problem with automotive wastewater, of course, is that it’s usually quite dirty. Automotive wastewater may be heavily contaminated with grease, oil, fats, coolant, radiator fluids, and various suspended solids.

 

Many of these substances are flammable, and pretty much all of them can be toxic to humans and to the natural environment. As such, it would be dangerous for automotive companies to simply release this water into the ecosystem. Not only that, but it would be illegal: Environmental regulations prevent manufacturing companies from disposing of their wastewater without first treating it. To release untreated wastewater would result in massive penalties, to say nothing of a tarnished public image.

 

The Benefits of Wastewater Treatment

 

As such, there are a number of benefits to wastewater treatment in the automotive sector… and some of them are pretty obvious. For instance, automotive companies should treat their wastewater to avoid legal consequences, if for no other reason.

 

But there can be other good reasons to treat wastewater, too. For example, treating water may mean that automotive manufacturers can recycle it. Given the sheer amount of water required to make cars, this can be an incredible way for automotive companies to operate in a more cost-effective way.

 

What are the Options for Automotive Wastewater Treatment?

 

There are a number of options available for automotive manufacturers seeking effective wastewater treatment.

 

• Chemical treatments can be fast-acting and effective, though they can also be expensive.
• Biological processes can also be used to purify water, often through oxygen deprivation.
• Centrifuge technology can be employed to separate solids from liquids, resulting in lightweight, high-density cakes that can be affordably hauled off and recycled.

 

To explore the different options for wastewater treatment, automotive companies are encouraged to reach out to technology providers like PHS.

 

Explore Your Options with PHS

 

For decades, our company has been at the forefront of wastewater treatment technologies. We supply advanced centrifuge systems to companies spanning countless industries, including automotive manufacturing. And that’s just one example of the best-in-class technology our team can provide. To explore your options further, reach out to PHS at your convenience.

Wastewater Treatment in a Hotel Setting: Key Considerations

Across the globe, the hotel industry is booming. Travel remains an incredibly popular pursuit, with tourists flocking to urban areas as well as more rural and suburban locales throughout the world. Naturally, every hotel management team desires to create an optimal guest experience, ensuring the kinds of comfort and convenience that allow them to maintain a competitive edge.

 

There are many obvious aspects to creating a great hotel experience, from spacious rooms to robust room service options, but one aspect that may be less obvious is wastewater treatment. Simply put, hotels need to have a functional and effective wastewater treatment system to ensure the comfort of their guests as well as to maintain compliance with local environmental statutes.

 

Key Considerations for Hotel Wastewater Treatment

 

As hotel managers think about their options for wastewater management, a few factors should be top-of-mind.

 

The Purity of Natural Water Sources

 

If a wastewater treatment system somehow leads to pollution or contamination of local, natural water systems, that could be both an ecological disaster and a PR nightmare for the hotel. Thankfully, if a septic system is properly installed and well-maintained, there is little risk of a contamination issue, even if the system is giving some trouble. Still, repairing a septic system can be costly, and will need to be done quickly to ensure continued quality-of-life at the hotel. For this reason, it’s usually smarter to invest in a more state-of-the-art wastewater treatment system.

 

Different Types of System

 

That raises a question: What types of wastewater treatment system can a hotel management team choose from? There are a number of options, and also several determinative factors:

 

• How many rooms/wastewater-generating units are at the hotel?
• What’s the daily wastewater volume?
• What are the peak volumes both on-season and off?

 

Based on these factors, hotels may find that chemical-based or UV-based systems serve them well, offering long-term and cost-effective wastewater treatment solutions.

 

Installation

 

When it comes to installation of a new system, there are a few things to consider.

 

• Make sure the quality of the effluent is going to meet local environmental standards.
• Check to see if your municipality requires you to have a permit to discharge hotel wastewater.
• Talk with your installation team about the most effective location for placing your new system. Beyond size/capacity, location is one of the most important factors for determining the efficiency of a wastewater treatment system.
• Remember that grease and oil from your hotel kitchen can clog your wastewater system causing it to break down prematurely. A grease trap is essential for avoiding this costly and cumbersome issue.

 

Explore the Options for Hotel Wastewater Treatment

 

The bottom line: Wastewater treatment is a key consideration for hotels, both for guest experience reasons and for environmental reasons. To find out more about different wastewater treatment options, why not contact the experts? Reach out to PHS today to ask about our decades of experience in the industry, and about our excellent options for wastewater management technology.

When you hear the phrase industrial wastewater, what comes to mind? Perhaps you think of the contaminated water that’s produced as a byproduct of the oil and gas industry, mining, or even chemical manufacturing.

 

Actually, industrial wastewater is produced by virtually every manufacturing company, power plant, and industrial environment. In other words, industrial wastewater is generated by the companies that make your clothing, your car battery, your mobile phone, and your household appliances.

 

What this means is that, within any industry, there is a need for a wastewater management process. Simply put, contaminated water cannot be released back into the environment, or even reused in plant operations, without first being properly treated. Without a process in place to remove metals, organic contaminants, and inorganic contaminants from wastewater, industrial organizations may run afoul of any number of environmental regulations.

 

Which Industries Produce Wastewater?

 

Just to provide a sense of how widespread wastewater generation is, consider a few examples of industries that produce wastewater at high volumes.

 

Metal Finishing

 

Metal finishing operations usually generate a slurry of metals dissolved in liquids. If released into the environment untreated, these slurries can pose health risks to animals and humans alike.

 

Commercial Textiles

 

The commercial textiles industry processes billions of pounds of laundry each year, which naturally produces large amounts of water contaminated by grease, oil, and other pollutants. This water must be treated before it is released.

 

Mining

 

Mining operations usually yield high quantities of water mixed with finely-ground rock. Disposing of this wastewater can be costly and inefficient, but proper treatment can make disposal a little bit easier.

 

Power Plants

 

Fossil-fuel power plants, particularly those that are coal-fired, rank among the most prolific producers of industrial wastewater. The wastewater generated by power plants often has high concentrations of lead, mercury, arsenic, and other hazardous toxins, making effective treatment a must.

 

Food Processing

 

Even food processing facilities tend to yield high quantities of wastewater. And this wastewater is often contaminated with the pesticides and herbicides used to develop foods at an industrial scale. Naturally, proper treatment is an essential responsibility of these food processing companies.

 

Properly Handling Industrial Wastewater

 

No matter the industry, there is an acute need for effective wastewater management processes. Thankfully, best-in-class technologies such as filter presses and centrifuges can have a major impact, effectively separating solid waste from wastewater and thereby facilitating a more cost-effective disposal process. This also helps industrial organizations maintain full compliance with environmental regulations.

 

For years, PHS has been at the forefront of wastewater treatment technologies, and we’d love to tell you more about some of the solutions we provide. To discover the best options for treating wastewater in an industrial setting, contact PHS today.

The primary function of water treatment facilities is to clean and purify water, removing solid waste and other pollutants so that the water may be safely released back into the environment, or used for tasks such as irrigation. A challenge inherent to water treatment is the abundance of solid waste, which can be both difficult and expensive to dispose of.

To answer the question of what to do with all this solid waste, a process known as sludge dewatering was developed. But exactly what is sludge dewatering? And how does it improve water treatment operations? Let’s take a closer look.

Sludge Dewatering 101

Sludge dewatering may be narrowly defined as the effort to minimize solid waste by volume, making it easier to dispose of in a cost-effective way.

Consider that the water treatment process involves both liquid and solid waste. The liquid is heavy and takes up a lot of volume, which also means that it’s quite difficult and expensive to get rid of. The sludge dewatering process involves removing the liquid, resulting in high-fiber, solid cakes. These cakes of solid waste are quite a bit lighter and take up less room. As such, they are much easier to dispose of.

The term sludge denotes the semi-solid slurry that results from water treatment processes. It’s through the dewatering method that this slurry is reduced to something dry and less messy.

Benefits of Sludge Dewatering

There are a number of benefits to the sludge dewatering process, a few of which we have hinted at already. Some of the primary advantages of sludge dewatering include:

• Reduction of waste volume. The dewatering process is all about making waste smaller, both in terms of its weight and in terms of the space it occupies, all so that it’s easier to manage and less costly to dispose of.

• Lowered cost of transportation. Along those lines, dry, high-solid cakes are much easier to manage, and can be stored and transported at a much smaller expense. Through the dewatering process, water treatment companies can save a significant amount of money.

• Less risk of environmental incidents. When liquid waste or slurry is transported, the risk of leaking and spilling is fairly high. Turning that waste into a high-solid cake can reduce that risk to almost zero.

• Easier wastewater recycling. Something else to keep in mind is that, once solid waste is totally removed from wastewater, that water can then be more easily reused to produce steam power, to irrigate dry farmlands, or in a range of other industrial applications.
• Automation is easy. Finally, note that the sludge dewatering process is relatively easy to automate, meaning that water treatment facilities can practice dewatering with minimal hassle and maximum efficiency.

Find Out More About Dewatering Equipment

For success in sludge dewatering, it’s pivotal to have the right equipment. That’s where P&H Senesac comes into play. Our company has long been at the vanguard of sludge dewatering technology, and we’d love to tell you more about the easy-to-deploy equipment we provide. Contact us whenever you’re ready to chat.