Study and economic analysis in the treatment of vinasse

Abstract

Different techniques to control and treatment wastewater from distillation alcohol plants are reviewed and a nonconventional procedure in vinasses treatment obtained like stillage from fermented and destilled sugar cane juice is presented. Tests of coagulation-flocculation made with jar test equipment shows that a clear effluent verified by NTU is obtained, despite the rate of diminution of the DBO5 was smaller of 40%, reason why the designed technique needs to be combined with an oxidating postreatment, after as the industrial wastewater satisfies the normative parameters. A comparative analysis of the coagulation-flocculation technique with respect to the conventional procedure anaerobic+aerobic treatment is made in economic terms. The obtained result shows that in small plants is viable a physical+chemical treatment, whenever the volume of vinasses to be treated must be smaller than 15 m3/day.