Septic Design

[mendodistilling]

I've got a few people I've been talking to about a septic design, they are all engineers but some of them are not specialized in brewery operations or winery operations so I'm trying to get input from people who are more qualified to help handle the situation. So far I've been told by a guy who is a specialist in waste water engineering who deals commonly in wineries that a bioreactor is the way to go for handling the BOD content before it enters the septic tanks with a black water (toilet)plumbing going directly to the septic tanks. He then went on to suggest to me that I could sell the bioreator water as compost tea, which in an ag area was kind of funny.

So does anyone have a bioreactor and what are the maintenance issues? I'm trying to figure out if one company product is better than another, etc. I have just started talks with the septic engineer so I'll share what he helps with as time progresses.

Any other ideas would be fantastic. I was considering a russell finex solids seperator to make damn sure I never have a problem but I'm thinking if I take all fermenter / stillage inputs and give them to the farmer, all I'm really left with is rinse water and floor washdown if anything. I have a cip system, so not much caustic / acids will be going down the drain.

The system will be automated to dose the pH in the bioreactor as well and he suggested I limit tank sizes to a certain size for seismic concerns, which obviously will not affect those in more stable grounds. I believe he suggested I have a 20 day breakdown time to be very sure of completion but that I could add bioreactors modularly. I like the idea of these but I'm wondering what other options are out there which are safe for near river applications. I'm not near a river persee but I'm very far up hill to a slightly seasonal water runway which leads to a river when water is heavy. So I am definitely concerned because of liability which will kill my business faster than you can say Yo gabba gabba.

Anyone use something like this?

[Scrounge]

I've gone with a standard septic. Ill be separating solids, although I'm not sure how yet. Post still, solids removed waste into an above ground tank for cooling and ph adjustment then down the floor drain it goes. Also a simple valve will divert it to grey water to the orchard, if I feel like putting it there. My county is cool with the idea as long as its engineered. There is a brandy/cider maker near me and he's on a standard septic, he's says he's only had to pump it once, after he put "some real nasty stuff" down it. He's pretty big too, multiple 5000g fermenters. Must be a big septic!! I'd be interested to know more about the reactors your looking at. I looked at a few on line before my engineer figured I didn't need one. I got a lot of different advice on the topic, very conflicting advise for sure, and the county is ok with a standard septic so I figured I'd go with that and see how it handles it. Ill be running a 100g still with a couple 300g fermenters, so we engineered it to handle 500-600g per day in the leach field. Scrounge

[MG Thermal Consulting]

I happened to be talking to an engineer I do business with about distilleries and he does many water treatment systems for caustic industries (tanneries, metal acid plating) and he basically said what was biological shouldn't be a problem unless you put a large distillery in a small town and surpass their capacity.

Didn't talk to him about septics, tho.

Mike

[mendodistilling]

I think the size has a lot to do with it. I'll have a 330 gallon still and a 660 gallon still, so its basically a 20 day wait on 10000 gallons of waste if i was to go that route directly dumping on a 10 day per month schedule. I'll likely end up just putting a small system in to handle cleaning wash down as the bulk will be put outside for cattle feed.

[mendodistilling]

Anyone heard of any other ways of dealing with bod issues? I've considered screening my fermenters when i push the remainer out with hot water, initially. This would be to try and keep all the last remnents out of the drain. I've heard of ipec screens and have a cheapy sock filter made of metal mesh to go inline. Not sure how terribly effective they are but worth a shot i guess.