The Diageo Great Northern Brewery in Dundalk installed a nanofiltration membrane plant to recover and reuse spent caustic solution previously disposed of. The plant recovers 90% of caustic used to regenerate a brewing filter aid, saving over €34,000 annually in reduced caustic, steam, and acid use. The plant consistently achieves a 10-fold volume concentration and reduces waste streams. The project demonstrated the feasibility of membrane technology for caustic recovery in brewing and other industries like dairy and pharmaceuticals.
The Diageo Great Northern Brewery in Dundalk installed a nanofiltration membrane plant to recover and reuse spent caustic solution previously disposed of. The plant recovers 90% of caustic used to regenerate a brewing filter aid, saving over €34,000 annually in reduced caustic, steam, and acid use. The plant consistently achieves a 10-fold volume concentration and reduces waste streams. The project demonstrated the feasibility of membrane technology for caustic recovery in brewing and other industries like dairy and pharmaceuticals.
The Diageo Great Northern Brewery in Dundalk installed a nanofiltration membrane plant to recover and reuse spent caustic solution previously disposed of. The plant recovers 90% of caustic used to regenerate a brewing filter aid, saving over €34,000 annually in reduced caustic, steam, and acid use. The plant consistently achieves a 10-fold volume concentration and reduces waste streams. The project demonstrated the feasibility of membrane technology for caustic recovery in brewing and other industries like dairy and pharmaceuticals.
The Diageo Great Northern Brewery in Dundalk installed a nanofiltration membrane plant to recover and reuse spent caustic solution previously disposed of. The plant recovers 90% of caustic used to regenerate a brewing filter aid, saving over €34,000 annually in reduced caustic, steam, and acid use. The plant consistently achieves a 10-fold volume concentration and reduces waste streams. The project demonstrated the feasibility of membrane technology for caustic recovery in brewing and other industries like dairy and pharmaceuticals.
production scale membrane filtration plant in the filtration centre of the Dundalk brewery for the purposes of recovering spent caustic for reuse in the plant.
Spent Caustic Recovery Plant for
Reusing Caustic Solutions in the Diageo Great Northern Brewery, Dundalk
The recovery plant incorporating
nanofiltration membrane technology has been successfully installed and is currently operational in the brewery. A dirty caustic solution from the regeneration of a brewing filter aid (PVPP) that was previously put to drain is now recovered in the membrane plant and reused again in PVPP regeneration. A Volume Concentration Factor (VCF) of 10 is being consistently achieved which translates into a caustic recovery rate of 90%. Benefits that have resulted include: Savings of 30,000 litres of fresh caustic per year. Savings of 129 tonnes of steam per year for heating caustic. Savings of 15,000 litres of acid for pH balancing in the effluent treatment plant. Annual net savings generated by the membrane filtration plant amount to over 34,000 per annum.
Diageo, Carrick Road, Dundalk, Co. Louth The Diageo Great Northern Brewery is situated in Dundalk town. Established since 1897 as an ale and stout site, it was purchased by Guinness in 1956 and converted into a lager brewery in 1959. In 1997 GrandMet and Guinness merged to form Diageo. The brewery currently employs 60 permanent staff and a number of contract staff. The Great Northern Brewery brews Harp, Carlsberg, Satzenbrau, McArdles, Smithwicks and Kilkenny Irish Beer. Harp, Carlsberg, Smithwicks, Kilkenny and McArdles are also kegged in the brewery.
Aim of this Project
The aim of the project was to install a production scale membrane filtration plant in the PVPP filtration centre of the Dundalk brewery for the purposes of recovering spent caustic for reuse in the PVPP filtration plant.
Project Description During the brewing process polyphenols, or tannins, are extracted from the malt. These polyphenols impart desired colour to the beer, but excess amounts can result in the formation of a permanent haze which renders the beer unsaleable. Diageo Great Northern Brewery, Dundalk
Therefore these polyphenols are removed using
polyvinylpolypyrrolidone (PVPP), a powder material to which the polyphenols adsorb. The PVPP with the adsorbed polyphenols is then filtered out of the beer.
Brewery filtration plant source of spent caustic
Prior to this project, the dirty caustic from the
regeneration process was put to drain. This resulted in: Use of fresh caustic for each regeneration. Use of steam to heat the fresh caustic for each regeneration. Use of acid for pH balancing of the dirty caustic in the effluent treatment plant. A successful feasibility study was carried out by FDT Consulting Engineers under CGPP Phase 1 to determine if membranes could be used to recover the spent caustic and reuse it in the PVPP regeneration process. This project under CGPP Phase 2 involved the design and installation of the membrane filtration plant, a Koch Membrane Systems nanofiltration unit, on a production scale in the brewery. The simplified schematic in the figure below demonstrates how the membrane separation process operates.
The Diageo Great Northern Brewery uses a PVPP
regeneration process in its filter plant, where the PVPP is regenerated after a filtration run and reused a number of times, rather than single a PVPP use. Dilute heated caustic solution is used to regenerate the PVPP powder. The caustic attracts polyphenols from the PVPP powder, making the PVPP material reusable. Simplified schematic of the membrane filtration plant
At the end of PVPP regeneration, the caustic
containing the polyphenols is delivered to the spent caustic tank. This caustic is then recycled through the membrane filtration plant. Matter which can pass through the membrane (water and caustic) is delivered to the hot caustic tank, while rejected material (polyphenols) is sent back to the spent caustic tank. At the end of the membrane filtration process, the concentrated volume of polyphenols is left in the spent caustic tank.
Savings - Spent Caustic
Plant
Per Year
Steam Savings Water Savings Bulk Caustic Savings Bulk Acid Savings
Achievements The successful implementation of the project has resulted in the environmental savings documented in Table 1.
Environmental Savings Spent Caustic Membrane Unit Per Year Water volume reduction
1350 m3
Steam Savings
129 tonne
Bulk Caustic Saving (45%
conc.)
30 m3
Bulk Acid Saving (45%
conc.)
15 m3
Effluent volume reduction
(plus reduction in effluent temperature)
1350 m3
Reduction in volume of BOD/COD to end of pipe treatment (1350 m3 at 11,600 mg/l COD)
15,660 kg
Table 1 Environmental savings achieved
The cost savings outlined in Table 2 have also
been achieved. The installed plant has consistently achieved its key performance indicators in terms of Volume Concentration Factor (VCF) and Membrane Rate of Permeation or Flux. The volume concentration factor is used to define how much the feed volume has been reduced during the filtration process (VCF = Feed Volume/Concentrate Volume). A VCF of 10 was agreed as a KPI before the project started. This value has been achieved consistently since the installation of the plant.
The Cleaner Greener Production Programme
(CGPP) of the EPA was funded under the National Development Plan 2000 2006. The CGPP was launched in 2001 as a grant scheme to Irish organisations to implement cleaner greener practices while achieving significant cost savings.
44,208
Total Running Costs
The installed Koch Membrane System
Cleaner Greener Production Programme
In addition to the resource savings outlined,
this system results in a smaller volume, more concentrated waste stream that is sent for offsite disposal rather than a more dilute, albeit high BOD stream being dealt with in the waste water treatment plant.
Observations If installing the unit again, a cartridge pre-filter with an automatic backwashing facility would be installed, rather than the current pre-filter which requires manual cleaning once blinded. While this would result in a higher capital investment, the running costs would be lower and the unit would not require as many instances of manual intervention.
Lessons Other breweries in Ireland use PVPP to clarify their beers, so the savings made in this project will be of interest to these companies. The project has also shown that membrane technology could be feasible for a variety of industries which use caustic for CIP, such as in the dairy and pharmaceutical sectors.
Cleaner Greener Production is the application
of integrated preventive environmental strategies to processes, products and services to increase overall efficiency and reduce risks to humans and the environment. Production processes: conserving raw materials and energy, eliminating toxic raw materials, and reducing the quantity and toxicity of all emissions and wastes Products: reducing negative impacts along the life cycle of a product, from raw materials extraction to its ultimate disposal. Services: incorporating environmental concerns into designing and delivering services. The programme aims are focussed on avoiding and preventing adverse environmental impact rather than treating or cleaning up afterwards. This approach brings better economic and environmental efficiency. Under Phase 2 of CGPP, 22 organisations were funded from a variety of sectors (e.g. chemicals, food, metals, electronics, service). The total achievements from the projects for the participating organisations included annual reductions of 250,000 tonnes in input/output streams (water/waste water), 660 MWh energy reduction and 1.6m cost savings. The programme will continue to be funded by the EPA in the NDP 2007-2013. This case study report is one of the reports available from the companies that participated in the second phase of the Cleaner Greener Production Programme. A summary of all the projects and CD containing all the reports are also available. More information on the programme is available from the EPA:
Institute of Technology was appointed to manage the programme. Established in 1991, the CTC is now nationally and internationally regarded as a centre of excellence in cleaner production, environmental management and eco-innovation across a range of industrial sectors.
