ANNOUNCEMENTS
Distilleries globally are one of the key contributors to economy of a country but along with it they also are key contributor to the environmental degradation. With the rolling down of ethanol blending program globally as well as in India with different percentages the sector will have immense growth in future. The major problem faced by this sector is the generation of spent wash which has a high level of organic waste in it, thus having a very high COD/BOD. The technologies yet are not up to mark to treat the waste completely in regard with CPCB guidelines, though much innovation has come forward in last few years. One of the best technologies considered for effluent treatment in distillery is the anaerobic digestion via help of different reactors. Biogas is one the waste generated in the distillery ETP which is highly valuable if recovered via closed system instead of opting for open lagoon system which are cost effective but have high rate of emissions due to letting go of methane directly into the atmosphere. The closed system recovery is a high cost but sustainable technology. The recovered biogas is later utilized for power generation via turbines to meet the plants own energy requirements and could be stored for social benefits too. Biogas is a renewable source of electricity generation which can replace the fossil fuel combustion and lower down the overall carbon footprint of the industry by decreasing its carbon emissions. The Clean Development mechanism (CDM) which is under Kyoto protocol which provides various methodologies to calculate the total carbon emission reductions due to methane avoidance by biogas recovery and electricity generation by replacing fossil fuel with renewable source for combustion. Achieving certain carbon emissions reductions by industry is credited by certified emission reductions (CER’s) under CDM. The project applies the above methodologies in case study of a distillery plant of 40 KLPD and calculated its emission reductions over period of 6 months. The sustainability of the project has also been assessed by sustainability SWOT analysis in terms of environmental, economic and social aspect to evaluate sustainability of such small scale projects involving waste to energy technologies and converting the greenhouse house gases into green energy contributing its part to achieve a carbon neutral world.
Keywords: Distillery, anaerobic digestion, ETP, wastewater treatment, biogas recovery, methane avoidance, electricity generation, CDM, carbon market mechanisms.
