Methane Recovery and Energy Generation in Spent Wash Wastewater Treatment

The wastewater from distillation process has high organic content, which has to be treated to bring down the levels of COD and BOD to prescribed standards of environmental authorities. In this study, the organic wastewater from distillery also known as spent wash is treated by closed anaerobic reactors to recover methane rich biogas and utilise the methane as fuel to generate steam and electricity. Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket (UASB) type of anaerobic reactors is employed in the project activity.The Greenhouse Gases (GHG) emission reductions due to recovery of methane and displacement of fossil fuel by generation of steam and electricity utilising the biogas generated are considered as emission reductions of the project activity. The analyses are conducted based on using the methodology of Clean Development Mechanis (CDM) for the projections of GHG emission reductions for the project’s baseline. It is found that the project will get methane recovery of 2,632 tones per year and reduce GHG emissions of about 275,646 tones of CO2e over the first 7-year crediting period, and the effluent is sufficient to meet the disposal standards required by the environmental authorities.