Fermentation Industry

As the number of wineries and breweries rapidly multiplies, concern about wastewater treatment from these industries has grown. In California alone, the number of wineries has increased from 150 to 700 in the past 25 years, while the microbrewery industry has grown at an even greater rate. Despite the growth of the industry in the U.S., most of the research development in its wastewater treatment comes from Europe, Australia, and South Africa. Much of the U.S. experience with fermentation industry wastewater treatment is covered in "gray" literature from consulting firms. Wastewater from fermentation industries is characterized by variable flow rates that is often seasonal in nature, high in organic loading (BOD or COD), low in pH and high in carbon-nitrogen (C:N) ratios. Pharmaceutical industry wastewater varies in all its characteristics depending on the type of product being manufactured, although it may have high salinity, protein enrichment, and significant bacterial counts. In both cases, wastewater from these industries must often be pretreated onsite before discharge to municipal systems, if available, or eventual local secondary treatment. Some problems are encountered with treatment of specific compounds, such as phenolics or particular inorganic species, in these wastewaters. Typically, the wastewater is amenable to biodegradation processes and does not have the problems associated with strong chemical interactions (e.g., redox reactions), which are possible with wastewater from some manufacturing industries. In this past year, there continued a focus on development of appropriate treatment technologies for fermentation industry wastewater or an augmentation of municipal treatment systems to handle the variable flows and loads.