PERSPECTIVES OF DISTILLERY AND BY-PRODUCTS INDUSTRIES WASTE MANAGMENT USING MEMBRANES TECHNOLOGIES

Abstract

A review of microfiltration, ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis techniques as alternative for both vinasses and sugar agroindustry wastewater management is showed in this paper. These techniques have been tested satisfactory in vinasse concentration in factories which produce ethanol from grains, in substitution ofconventional evaporators systems. The experiences with vinasses showed values of 75-99% for color retention, for organic matter retention and between 60-99% of solid retention, depending of both membranes and membranes combination selected. From the results reported by several authors a two stages system for vinasse treatment is simulated in order to estimate its efficiency in total solids and organic matter retention and its investment and operation cost.