Treatment of distillery spent-wash for utilization in agriculture

Abstract

Increase in the production of sugar from sugarcane by sugar manufacturing industries in Uganda has resulted in the emergence of many distilleries that make use of the molasses to produce spirits by fermentation process. The distillery effluent possesses typically high pollution load and pose a serious problem of environmental pollution to many developing countries especially Uganda. This research aims at studying the characteristics of distillery industry spent wash, and then treating it for safe disposal into the environment or us in agriculture. The method used in the treatment of DSW is the bio-methanation process which involves the use of a biodigester to break down organic nutrients in the spent wash anaerobically to generate biogas. The COD and other parameters of the effluent from the digester to the last lagoon were monitored and found to fall in the required by NEMA for distillery effluent disposal and it therefore can be safely discharged to the environment or be used as a fertilizer to boost crop yield.