Biomethanation of brewery wastewater using an anaerobic upflow blanket filter

A large flow of effluent is generated from brewery plants and needs treatment before discharging into the environment. A laboratory-scale investigation was conducted to examine the effectiveness of the anaerobic upflow blanket filter (UBF) process for the biomethanation of a brewery effluent. The results show that the process, when operated at ambient temperatures of 20–29°C and influent chemical oxygen demand (COD) of 2440 mg/l, could remove the majority of the organic matter at a low hydraulic retention time. The process produced a potentially usable energy. These results compare favorably with the results obtained from investigations into the biomethanation of brewery effluent using other anaerobic processes.