This document summarizes a presentation on water and wastewater sustainability in the food and beverage industry. It discusses trends toward cradle-to-cradle engineering and treating wastewaters as co-products. Anaerobic digestion is presented as a key technology for energy production and carbon footprint reduction. Case studies of co-product recovery at Slane Distillery are described. The presentation concludes that future technology must be led by sustainability and that wastes should be designed to ultimately recycle in a cradle-to-cradle approach.

1. Water & Wastewater Sustainability in
the Food & Beverage Industry
Seamus Crickley (Director , WEW Engineering Ltd)
Sustainable Food & Beverage Conference October
2018

2.  WEW Profile
WEW Engineering
 Process/ Mechanical / ICA / SCADA Consulting
Engineers, 40 yearsexperience & 500+ projects.
 Specialist team: Chemist, Chartered Engineers, R&D
expertsand 3D AutoCAD Plant Designers.
 Energy / Water / Carbon / nutrient Engineering with
costed alternatives.
 Turnkey BATdesign with PSDP, tender documentation
assessment and project management.
 Mainstream AD with high quality polishing with most
sustainable end-of – pipe solutions

3. Sustainability Trends
 Cradle-to-Cradle Engineering becoming a
norm
 “Wastewaters” of past are now co-products
for further use – Not disposal
 Concept of Product Recovery
 Increased productivity from co-product
recovery
 Energy production via steam or CHP co-
generation using Anaerobic Digestion
 Carbon Footprint reduction Water Cycle /
Water Stewardship
 Masterplan studies for sustainability policy
 Commercial justification applies in all cases
using carbonation studies
MASTER PLAN
WATER/WASTEWATER

4.  Ongoing industry rationalisation since the 1970s
 Intensification / Optimisation of production
 Product loss to productivity relationship
 Continuous R&D challenge to maximise earnings
from waste by-products
 Modernisation / Automation of production
techniques
 Developing international alliances in R&D /
Technology e.g. IDF etc
 Cooperation to address environmental challenges
Industry Trends

5. Fundamental Sustainability Criteria
Carbon, Nitrogen, Water Cycle
Wastes: Solid & Liquid
Energy Potential
Sludges (biological / chemical)
Soil Nutrient
Advanced Wastewater Treatment – Re-Use

6. Applicable Standards (EU)
 BAT
o 2013-84-TAN_Tanning of hides and skins
o 2016_902_CWW_Wastewater and waste gas treatment in
the chemical sector
o 2016_1032_NFM_Non-ferrous metal industries
o 2017_302_IRPP_Intensive rearing of poultry or pigs
o 2017_1442_LCP_Large Combustion Plants
o 2017_2117_LVOC_production of large volume organic
chemicals
o 2018_1147_Waste Treatment
 BREF
o Economic and Cross-media Effects (ECM)
o Monitoring of Emissions to Air and Water from IED
Installations (ROM)
 Alimentarius
o Global food standards of EU and WHO

7. Water in Production
 Source water – Rivers, lakes, main distribution system
o In Ireland – source water is currently considered “free” (excluding costs related to
pumping, tanks etc)
o European Water Stewardship(EWS) – i.e. use water more efficiently7
o Water Footprint8
 Innovative R&D defines product related water demand

8. Conclusions & Comments
 Future Technology must be sustainably led
 Decisions, Pre-planning and Evaluation of alternatives require Business Assessment
 Sustainability index (Capex / Net reduced capitalised opex) should replace ROI
(Return on Investment)
 Forthcoming legislation on FDM BAT and limited Permissible water usage require
action to facilitate intensification (Pending)
 Where possible “wastes” liquid and solid are co-products with ultimate Cradle – to
– Cradle recycle as the design/decision guide (Bjorn 2012)
 Water re-use characterisation, specification and loop designs should align with the
operation being addressed, e.g. cooling, evaporation, compound quality etc
 Ongoing Sustainable R&D has introduced a gasification bio-energy for production
and processing bio-fuelled service station

9. Conclusions & Comments cont’d
 For membrane re-use applications pre-analysis, proper pre
treatment and careful selection of the tertiary and fourth level
pre-treatment technology is necessary
 Selection criteria is established for decades but for specific
applications, bench pilot runs often pay well versus future
difficult and costly operation.
 Designs applied R&D must urgently include online control
using modular based FDS which incorporates inline pathogen
monitoring / control

10. Co-Products – Slane Distillery

11. Water System – Slane Distillery

12. Sustainable Wastewater Treatment

13. References
 http://www.engineersjournal.ie/2018/01/09/sustainable-developments-anaerobic-
digestion-wastewater/
 Teagasc. Moorepark Conference 30/05/2018 : Dairy Water / Wastewater
Sustainability
 Enterprise Ireland 2017 – Water/ Wastewater Cluster
 Bjorn, A, and Hauschild, M. (2012) “Absolute versus Relative Environmental
Sustainability”, Journal of Industrial Ecology, 12(2), 321 - 332
 http://waterfootprint.org/media/downloads/TheWaterFootprintAssessmentManual
_2.pdf
 Sustainable developments in the use of anaerobic digestion to treat wastewater:
s.crickley ,engineer journal ,jan 9th, 2018

14. Thank
You
Any Questions?

15. WEW Clients include
www.weweng.ie