Computer-aided batch process design, techno-economic and uncertainty analyses of bio-clarified water recovery from south-eastern Nigerian brewery wastewater

Biocoagulation-flocculation-sedimentation (bioclarification) is one of the main wastewater treatment techniques. Despite its effectiveness in treating brewery wastewater for water reuse, the scale-up process for the reclaimed brewery water from wastewater has rarely been documented in the literature. This study presents the computer-aided process design, techno-economic and uncertainty analyses of bioclarified water production from brewery wastewater. The base-case simulation model, process scale-up design and economics were performed in Aspen Batch Process Developer. Process profitability indices (Net Present Value: (NPV), Internal Rate of Return: (IRR) and Payback Time: PBT) were evaluated in a user-defined developed Microsoft-excel version 2018. Monte-Carlo-Simulation in Crystal-Ball-Oracle software was used to perform the sensitivity and uncertainty analyses. The process scale-up simulation results gave annual production capacity (45,000,000 L/year), batch size (9800 L/batch) and annual number of batches produced (4564 batches/year). Base case capacity results showed that the total capital investment, NPV, IRR and PBT are $2,416,358.62, $2,790,608, 36% and 3.27years respectively. Sensitivity analysis shows that production capacity and product selling price have the highest contribution for both NPV and IRR respectively. Certainties of base-case model were 90.27% for the IRR and 99.51% for the NPV. This study showed that brewery wastewater bioclarification scale-up design is feasible. [Display omitted] •Simulation of brewery wastewater bio-clarification was developed in ASPEN software.•The design considered a bio-clarified water processing capacity of 45 million L/year.•A net present value $2,416,358.62 and Pay back time 3.27 years were calculated.•Full-scale process design proves cost-effectiveness of potential water reuse.