Glenmorangie served up neat membrane bioreactor to reduce whisky waste

Sept. 1, 2017
Scottish firm Glenmorangie may be best known for producing delicious bottles of single malt whisky yet the company is now on its way to producing its own energy from waste.

Scottish firm Glenmorangie may be best known for producing delicious bottles of single malt whisky yet the company is now on its way to producing its own energy from waste.

The company took delivery of an anaerobic membrane bioreactor system at its distillery in Scotland’s Northern Highlands, which produces between four to five million litres of whisky per annum.

Working with UK company Aquabio, the anaerobic digestion plant at the Ross-shire distillery uses natural biological processes which both reduces output in distillery wastewater by up to 95 percent and creates energy in the form of methane rich biogas.

Using ultra-filtration tubular membrane technology, the plant now largely operates automatically and can be remotely monitored online.

The microorganisms in Glenmorangie’s bioreactor are able to degrade 11.7 tonnes of chemical oxygen demand in the polluted wastewater everyday, in the process producing 3500 cubic metres of biogas daily.

Importantly, the biogas replaces some of the fossil fuels used at the distillery to heat the stills in which the spirit is made.

Steve Goodwin, managing director of Aquabio, said: “The low energy Anaerobic Membrane Bioreactor Plant - or AnMBR LE - is designed to improve the quality of the effluent being discharged into the Dornoch Firth and the resulting biogas is reused as fuel in the site boiler system.”

With an average of ten to twelve litres of water are needed to produce one litre of whisky, water technology companies are looking to alchohol producers as the next big users of their equipment.

FEWA to boost desal capacity

The Federal Electricity and Water Authority (FEWA) plans to bolster its seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination arsenal by building new plants and expanding existing capacity.

The authority aims to build a new 205,000 m3/day project in Umm al-Quwain and has already qualified 13 consortia to bid on the construction, according to news agency WAM.

A further desalination plant will be built in Al-Zawra, Ajman with a capacity of 136,000 m3/day. This follows an MoU signed back in 2014 between Abu Dhabi’s international energy and water company TAQA and FEWA for the development.

Capacity of the Ghalilah desalination project will also be trebled, from 68,000 m3/day to 205,000 m3/day. This project was previously awarded to Aquatech under a US$82 million engineering-procurement- construction contract back in 2011.

China market boosts Grundfos turnover

Danish pump company Grundfos has attributed an increase in net turnover to growth in the China and Russian markets.

In its half-year financial results for 2017, net turnover increased by 5.8 percent - DKK 12.2 billion (US$1.9bn) compared to DKK 11.6 billion (US$1.8bn) in first half of 2016.

The company said that China and Russia are among the countries which show the strongest growth, but several markets including Southern Europe, Middle East and Latin America also develop very positively. This is a change in position from earlier in the year when Grundfos reported in its financial results that Russia and the Middle East suffered from low levels of activity as a result of low oil prices.

Mobile desalination units help bapco meet boiler feedwater demands

The Bahrain Petroleum Company (Bapco) has eliminated the need to boost its boiler feedwater requirements at its Awali refinery by tanker trucks after taking delivery of mobile water technology from GE.

Previously, the limited in-house distillate water production from the desalination units prompted Bapco to import water using tank trucks to fill up the shortage, causing gridlock on refinery roads.

For the project, GE Water & Process Technologies provided Bapco a turnkey operations and maintenance solution with a total of 13 mobile water units.

This included six mobile seawater multimedia filter containers, five mobile seawater reverse osmosis containers, two mobile brackish water reverse osmosis containers and four diesel-operated electrical generators.

Bahrain is one of the most water-stressed countries in the world and will continue to be through at least 2040, according to the World Resources Institute.

Bapco refines more than 260,000 barrels per day of crude oil, exporting throughout the Middle East, India, the Far East, Southeast Asia and Africa.

“GE’s mobile water solutions enabled Bapco to convert seawater into high-purity boiler feedwater for refinery use,” said Yousif Ahmed, acting manager, power and utilities, Bapco. “Availing mobile water solutions ensure a continual water supply instead of relying on tank truck deliveries.”

GE’s industrial water business is expected to be rebranded as SUEZ Water Technologies & Solutions in the coming months following the acqusition for €3.2 billion earlier this year. This falls in line with SUEZ’s historic strategy, after it unified its United Water, Degremont and SENA Waste Services under the single SUEZ brand at the end of 2015.

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