When the sewage treatment plant drinks "beer"
Our reporter Liu Cheng
On the morning of November 2nd, two tankers drove out of the Tsingtao Brewery No. 2 in Licang District, Qingdao. They were loaded with beer production wastewater and drove straight to the Licunhe Sewage Treatment Plant in Shibei District. The waste water was discharged into a special large tank.
This series of operations has become a daily routine.
Beer production wastewater does not enter the pipe network, so why use vehicles to pull it?
It turned out that this contained a story of "turning waste into treasure".
There is a new way of thinking change
"In the past, this has always been our heart disease, and we always feel that resources have been wasted." Chu Bingwei, director of the Safety and Environmental Management Headquarters of Tsingtao Brewery Co., Ltd., talked about the wastewater from beer production. "Pollutant Discharge Standard" stipulates that it must pass pretreatment and meet the standards before it can be discharged into urban sewage treatment plants. In order to ensure that beer production wastewater meets the discharge standards, we need to invest a lot of money in pretreatment every year." Chu Bingwei introduced, beer production Wastewater, as a high-concentration organic wastewater with excellent biodegradability, does not contain toxic and harmful substances, and can be used as a supplement to the carbon source of urban sewage treatment plants to "turn waste into treasure".
At the same time, urban sewage treatment plants are often "not enough to eat" due to insufficient carbon sources.
"Purchasing carbon sources is our biggest expenditure." said Gu Ruihuan, director of the Environmental Energy Safety Production and Operation Department of Qingdao Water Group Co., Ltd. The nutrients that contain carbon and can be used by the growth and reproduction of microorganisms are collectively referred to as carbon sources. In other words, the treatment process mainly relies on microorganisms to "eat" pollutants, so as to achieve the goal of water purification.
If the concentration of organic matter in the influent is too low, the microorganisms will not be "satisfied", which will affect the removal effect of nitrogen and phosphorus. In order to maintain the activity of the microorganisms, the sewage treatment plant needs to purchase organic matter such as sodium acetate as a carbon source to ensure denitrification and removal. Phosphorus effect.
“In the past, sewage treatment plants were all purchased carbon sources. Not only did the operating costs increase greatly, but the long-term use of acetic acid carbon sources would also cause certain corrosion to equipment and structures. Beer production wastewater is rich in organic matter, which is high-quality carbon for sewage treatment plants. source."
On the one hand, in order to ensure that beer production wastewater meets the emission standards, beer production enterprises need to invest a lot of money for pretreatment every year, which wastes high-quality carbon sources; on the other hand, sewage treatment plants purchase sodium acetate because of insufficient carbon sources.
Faced with the contradiction of waste of resources, how can we “turn waste into treasure” without violating the policy?
"We will start to study and solve this problem immediately." The turning point came from a survey conducted by Qingdao Ecological Environment Bureau to Tsingtao Brewery. Dong Ruzeng, deputy director of Qingdao Ecological Environment Bureau, said after learning about the policy obstacles that "turning waste water into treasure" encountered policy obstacles: " To achieve the'dual carbon' goal, it is necessary to dig into every detail and solve environmental pressure through precise measures." After returning to the bureau, they immediately set up a special investigation team to conduct in-depth investigations and solicit opinions from manufacturers such as Tsingtao Brewery, and form a list of problems. .
At the same time, it actively coordinated the Qingdao Municipal Drainage Department, Tsingtao Brewery Co., Ltd., Licunhe Sewage Treatment Plant and other relevant units to hold special meetings to build a joint platform for communication and coordination between upstream and downstream enterprises.
Technological innovation to solve "difficulties"
"We are very happy to be able to obtain high-quality carbon sources for free, and the leaders of the Licunhe Sewage Treatment Plant are also very supportive. They happily put out more than 1 million yuan in funds for technical research and equipment purchase for the utilization of beer production wastewater. "Gu Ruihuan said.
Led by the Qingdao Municipal Bureau of Ecology and Environment, Tsingtao Brewery Co., Ltd. and Licunhe Sewage Treatment Plant jointly formed a technical research team. The best effect is to separate the thermal coagulum suitable as a carbon source from the beer production wastewater and pull it to the sewage treatment plant for precise placement.” Gu Ruihuan told reporters that the useful substances are extracted and then sent to the sewage treatment. Factory use, this does not violate the policy.
At the same time, after the organic matter is fully extracted, the organic matter concentration of the beer production wastewater is greatly reduced, and the standard for direct discharge into the pipe network can basically be met with simple treatment.
To this end, the Licunhe Sewage Treatment Plant is specially equipped with storage tanks, dosing devices and automatic control devices.
"We have specially developed special equipment." Chu Bingwei said, "We have invested in the research and development of'beer high-concentration material recovery equipment' for extracting thermal coagulum, and we are currently applying for a national patent."
After technological innovation solved the policy problem, the organic wastewater from the brewery began to be transported to the sewage treatment plant in large quantities.
In two years, Tsingtao Brewery's second plant transported organic wastewater thermal coagulum to the Licunhe Sewage Treatment Plant, saving more than 3 million yuan in carbon source costs for the sewage treatment plant.
At the same time, the concentration of pollutants in the sewage pretreatment station of the second Tsingtao Brewery plant has been reduced year by year, saving about 36,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year, and realizing a win-win cooperation for enterprises.
"After the results of the experiment were obtained, we assisted Tsingtao Brewery to win the support of the Shandong Provincial Department of Ecological Environment, and formally proposed to the Ministry of Ecology and Environment the relevant recommendations for amending the beer industry's water pollutant discharge standards." The reporter told the reporter that after the proposal was put forward, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment has conducted extensive research, “especially when consulting companies, it was found that some regulations in the old standard have clearly lagged behind the actual management needs.”
On December 21, 2020, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and the State Administration for Market Supervision and Administration jointly issued a revised form of the "Beer Industry Pollutant Discharge Standards", allowing beer manufacturers and downstream sewage treatment plants to sign legally effective written contracts to jointly agree The discharge concentration limit of water pollutants is no longer subject to the restriction of the sewage discharge standard of the appropriation management.
"The issuance and implementation of the amendments to the standard marks the removal of the barriers to the use of wastewater from beer production as a carbon source for sewage treatment plants, and also points out the direction for further deepening cooperation between beer production enterprises and sewage treatment enterprises across the country." Dong Ruzeng said.
Calculate the ecological account by trickle
Since then, the utilization of wastewater from beer companies in Qingdao has entered the "fast lane".
On May 21 this year, Tsingtao Brewery's production wastewater agreed indirect discharge limit cooperation agreement was held at the Tsingtao Brewery in Shibei District, Qingdao. Tsingtao Brewery’s other three factories in Qingdao signed agreements with three neighboring sewage treatment plants. The cooperation agreement signifies that the beer production wastewater of this factory can be discharged into the sewage pipe network in accordance with the agreed concentration limits of the main pollutants after simple pretreatment.
"After the agreement is signed, it is estimated that the three breweries will save nearly 3 million yuan in sewage treatment-related costs each year, and save about 6 million yuan in carbon source purchase costs for three downstream sewage treatment companies, and reduce carbon emissions by 5,000 tons each year." Wang Hong said.
What's even more exciting is that Tsingtao Brewery's 60 factories across the country have taken action to seek to sign emission agreements with local sewage treatment plants to save money and reduce carbon emissions.
"At present, 18 factories across the country have signed contracts with local sewage treatment plants, and 12 factories have begun to operate in accordance with the contract." Chu Bingwei said.
Wang Hong calculated an account and calculated based on the operating data of the Tsingtao Brewery, which reduced carbon emissions by 2 kilograms per thousand liters of wine. If all the 60 factories of Tsingtao Brewery follow the new emission method, they are predicted to reduce carbon emissions by approximately 2 per year. Million tons.
This does not include the cost of purchasing carbon sources saved by sewage treatment plants, and carbon source preparation causes higher carbon emissions, so the reduction in carbon source purchases will reduce carbon emissions data will be greater.
If you look at the entire beer industry in my country, this data will once again show geometric growth.
At present, the production and sales volume of China's beer industry has reached 40 million kiloliters per year. If emissions are carried out according to this model, beer companies alone will reduce carbon emissions by 80,000 tons.
The liquor industry and the fermented alcohol industry are similar. The new national emission regulations have also been revised this time. These two industries, plus data from sewage treatment plants across the country, will reduce carbon emissions by at least several times.
Wang Hong didn't expect that by reducing the trickle from a small beer factory, he could calculate such a big ecological account.
In addition to reducing corporate emissions, the local water ecological environment has also been significantly improved.
Taking the second Tsingtao Brewery as an example, after the concentrated wastewater is transported to the sewage treatment plant as a carbon source, the quality of the effluent after the remaining wastewater treatment can be stably reached the quasi-class IV standard, and ecological replenishment can be implemented for the surrounding Licun River and Zhangcun River every day. 5000 cubic meters; and after the large-scale expansion and upgrading of the Licun River Sewage Treatment Plant, the effluent quality has also been upgraded from the original Class A standard to the quasi-Class IV standard, and ecological water replenishment is implemented for the Licun River and the Zhangcun River every day 30 Ten thousand cubic meters.
With continuous and stable supplementary water sources, the ecological conservation and purification functions of the rivers have been greatly improved. The Licun River and Zhangcun River have jumped from being inferior to Category V in 2018 to Category III in 2020. The two rivers, which were more polluted in the past, are now It has long been turned into a green landscape corridor and a good place for citizens to relax and entertain.
"'Carbon peaking and carbon neutrality' are both promises and pressures. Chinese companies will have to face this big test in the future." Mu Qipeng, associate professor of Shandong Jianzhu University, believes that the cooperation case of breweries and sewage treatment plants brings us A positive perspective on pressure is that the “dual-carbon” goal will force companies to discover the depth of carbon reduction that was not easy to find in the past. This requires more efficient and fine-tuned management and interaction within companies, upstream and downstream, and across industries.
"It is conceivable that China's "dual carbon" goal will not only bring green water and green mountains to the countryside, but also an economic engine that is efficiently integrated. The whole world will benefit from this."