Industrial treatment from distilleries vinasses in UASB reactors

The anaerobic digestion in UASB reactors is well known since the 80´, at industrial scale, in Latin American countries, for the treatment of liquid wastes, including the ethanol vinasses. That´s the importance to present the equations used in the design and the results of the actual potentiality of a biogas plant, using as a case of study an, the vinasses treatment of a distillery of a capacity of 500 HL of ethanol per day. The flow sheet of the technology and an explanation of the stages are also shown. The results of the mass balance confirm that to treat the whole vinasses generated with a COD of 50 kg per cubic meter, to be converted in electric energy, it´s necessary to install two UASB reactors f 1160 cubic meters each , being the production potential of this technology of 12821 cubic meters of desulphurized biogas per day, 21796 kWh of electric energy, 4.33 t per day of dry mud and 716 cubic meters of vinasses with only 15 kg of COD per cubic meters, that could be used for ferti-irrigation of the cane fields, as an option to close the treatment cycle and waste disposal . All this drive to the conclusion that the anaerobic digestion of the distillery vinasses in UASB reactors as a primary treatment option, with the use of the treated vinasses for the ferti-irrigation of the cane fields to close the cycle make the ethanol production true ecofrienly. (author)