World Class Manufacturing Session
Daniel Gore, Anton Paar, Graz, Austria
Co-author(s): Josef Bloder, Anton Paar, Graz, Austria
ABSTRACT: All breweries and beverage manufacturers,
regardless of size, rely on either private or public wastewater
treatment centers and must adhere to local, state, and federal laws for
effluent quality. Effluent COD (chemical oxygen demand) is not permitted
to exceed specific limits, typically between 2,000 and 4,000 mg/L, and
it is unfortunately not uncommon for higher level COD effluent to enter
the wastewater stream due to equipment failure or human error. This
paper explains how a new method for COD monitoring works and
demonstrates how expensive fines or costs created by high COD levels can
be avoided. Several options are currently available to measure COD, or
BOD (biological oxygen demand), but they are relatively costly and rely
on time-consuming measurement methods that create a very low measurement
frequency. A new method, relying on density and/or sound velocity and
conductivity, is used to continuously measure the wastewater stream and
determine the COD in real time. Due to the system’s in-line location and
continuous measurement, COD spikes are also monitored. As density and
sound velocity are already a well-known and established method for
measuring sugar and alcohol contents of final products in the beverage
industry, they also correlate very well to COD. The reproducibility and
accuracy of any COD measurement depend on variations in the composition
of the wastewater. The various components found in brewery and beverage
wastewater streams, namely the sugars maltose, glucose, and sucrose, as
well as alcohol, acids, and alkalis, correlate very well with density
and sound velocity and, therefore the COD value as well. Once additional
acids and alkalis are added via CIP procedures, however, the density
and sound velocity values are no longer reliable and require the
addition of conductivity and/or pH to allow accurate measurement of all
components. Sugars and alcohol have a very large effect on COD, and very
small concentration changes have a huge impact on final COD. For
example, an extract/sugar content change of 0.01°P is equivalent to 112
mg/L COD, and an alcohol content change of 0.01% m/m is equivalent to
209 mg/L COD. A total COD of 10,000 mg/L is actually less than 1°P!
Depending on the needs of the brewery, a less advanced alarm only
system, comprising sound velocity and conductivity, may be sufficient
for avoiding large COD spikes. However, by combining density with sound
velocity and conductivity, composition fluctuation errors are
drastically reduced, and accuracy improves by a factor of five over
sound velocity alone. A complete COD monitoring system is able to
control more advanced measures such as wastewater release, addition of
dilution water or chemicals, and shunt out-of-spec wastewater to a
holding tank for further evaluation and blending.
Daniel Gore
received his B.A. degree from the University of Maryland, College Park,
including two years of study in Germany. After graduating in 1995 he
returned to Germany and began an apprenticeship as a brewer and maltster
at the Lammbrauerei Hilsenbeck. After successfully finishing his
apprenticeship he worked in multiple breweries throughout Germany,
including the Uerige Obergärige Hausbrauerei and Quenzer Bräu before
moving back to the United States to assume the role of head brewer at
the Long Trail Brewing Company. In 2006 he changed focus to work as a
technical sales representative for Anton Paar, USA and continued to put
his 12 years of practical brewing experience to good use serving the
beverage industry. During this time Daniel was a member of MBAA and ISA
and enjoyed working with local chapters in the Northeast. In 2010 he
moved to Graz, Austria, to become Anton Paar GmbH’s application
specialist, supporting Anton Paar’s existing applications in the
beverage industry, as well as developing new beverage applications and
technologies.
VIEW PRESENTATION 223
