Track: Technology Management
Abstract
The brewery industry is one of the major industries in Zimbabwe and the following study was conducted to assess the techno-economic feasibility of reuse of wastewater after treatment using the biofilm that forms on the biocarriers. The malting plant of a certain brewing plant uses up to 350000 cubic meters water a year discharging about 75% of the biologically contaminated water as effluent which is discharged into the ecosystem. A biological water treatment approach was done using a moving bed biofilm reactor, with use of Mutag biochips. The treatment resulted in 93% BOD reduction, 87.9% COD reduction, 48% TSS reduction, 44% TDS reduction and a 97.8% increase in DO at a treatment period of 24 hours. An economic analysis was done with a payback period of 2.09 years and return on investment of 49% indicating the techno-economic viability of brewery wastewater.