This packaging plant finishes "heavy" beer, a liquid concentrate, into the well-known canned and bottled products. The plant handles 50,000 barrels per week and generates over 350,000 gallons of wastewater per day. Wastes are treated at the plant's 0.5 MGD waste treatment facility which operates under a standard discharge NPDES permitWaste beer is the main constituent of the plant's waste stream. In addition, there are cleaners, sanitizers, and various chemicals used to maintain the sanitary conditions necessary for the packaging operation. Less than 2% of the waste stream is domestic wastewater.Almost from the beginning of full-scale packaging operations, the treatment plant experienced operating difficulties. First, polymer demand far exceeded projections. Next, the plant experienced regular shock loadings. These loadings caused upsets in the biomass and made it difficult to stabilize treatment plant operations. In some instances, the upsets caused biomass destruction to the point that total reseeding was necessary. The sludge additions, however, significantly increased the costs of sludge handling (both for transport and within the process) and were effective only until the next shock load.
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