OTUS: a new wastewater treatment plant.
The modern plant for the treatment of wastewater from the production process consumes less electricity than conventional plants and generates biomass to produce biogas.
Wastewater treatment (or wastewater purification) is a process that removes contaminants from wastewater of urban or industrial origin. Social, productive and recreational activities lead to effluents production that must first be purified in order to be returned to the environment.
Wastewater purification is a legally binding obligation.
Italian law prescribes that “all discharges must be authorized”. The legislation also sets maximum discharge values for different types of wastewater: urban, domestic and industrial.
In accordance with our commitment to environmental sustainability and respect for the territory, OTUS is equipped with a state-of-the-art wastewater treatment plant.
How does OTUS Brewery wastewater treatment plant work?
Wastewater from the production process is conveyed to the plant’s equalisation tank. Here pH is measured and adjusted.
Water is then pumped to purification towers, inside which microorganisms break down the nutrients dissolved in it to produce biomass. The nanoceramic gills inside the towers form web-like structures, creating ideal attack sites for biomass formation by the microorganisms present.
Arranged in suspended vertical rings, each gill is folded onto a support and creates two distinct sides: one in contact with wastewater and the other in contact with air. Oxygen diffuses in the biomass from the air side to the liquid side. At the same time, nutrients diffuse through the biomass from the liquid side to the air side. The process is known as counter diffusion. Using oxygen naturally present in the air, microorganisms multiply by feeding themselves with effluents and break down the organic load in the water. Unlike conventional wastewater treatment plants that need to insufflate oxygen, the modern OTUS plant is more sustainable and environmentally friendly as it consumes 2/3 less electricity.
Water thus purified is then released into the sewage system, while the waste product (biomass) is given to biogas or compost companies for disposal.
In the future, it would be nice to be able to recover this water as a processing by-product, instead of disposing it as waste, and use it, for example, for agricultural purposes.
OTUS commitment to environmental sustainability.
We know how water is the most important resource for our planet survival. This is why our brewery is also equipped with a wastewater recovery system from the production process, which allows it to be reused to wash the fermenters.
All these initiatives are part of a wide-ranging environmental sustainability project that OTUS Brewery is committed to pursuing on several levels: from the use of unsold bread to produce our gluten-free beer Cuor di Pane, to the recovery of brewer’s spent grain to produce biogas and more.
