Biogas powers beer brewing in Central America

Latin American beer-brewing company Compañía Cervecera de Nicaragua (CCN) is employing technology which can convert food and beverage wastewater to energy. The company will use technology from green energy company Global Water Engineering (GWE) to harvest biogas (methane) energy from wastewater to replace fossil fuels and provide reliable base-load energy while simultaneously achieving much cleaner effluent. The GWE technology is represented in Australia and New Zealand by CST Wastewater Solutions.

CCN, founded in 1926, is Nicaragua’s biggest brewery. This year the company commenced the installation of a brand new GWE wastewater treatment and biogas use plant at its brewery in Managua. GWE has designed and installed an anaerobic reactor incorporating Anubix-B technology for 13 tonnes of COD throughput per day, as well as a biogas use system in one of CCN’s boilers, which allows the company to save up to 3000 kg of fuel oil per day. A revamp of the plant’s aerobic and a complete sludge dewatering systems has also been included in the project.

GWE’s Anubix-B reactor.

The long distance of almost 1 km between the wastewater treatment plant and the boiler room represented an additional challenge which was successfully tackled by using GWE’s drying system, Gasodrix. This allowed the client to use an existing pipeline at the plant without intermediate draining points. The plant is currently being commissioned for service.

CST Wastewater Solutions’ Managing Director, Michael Bambridge, says GWE anaerobic digestion technology is applicable to a host of Australasian industries, particularly food, beverage and agro industry applications. The technology can be used wherever industry has a biological waste stream or wastewater with high organic carbon or COD (chemical oxygen demand) of natural origin that can be broken down into biogas by anaerobic bacteria.

GWE’s biogas use system installed at one of the CCN boilers.

GWE anaerobic technology plants can typically pay back the cost of their introduction within two years or less - and then go on working 24/7, virtually in perpetuity, to provide biogas for their owners, who can use the energy for their own purposes, he says. The technology has been demonstrated in more than 300 projects completed worldwide, including more than 70 that generate biogas to replace fossil fuels in fuelling boilers and processing plant or to sell back to the electricity grid.

To assist with adoption of the technology in Australia, CST Wastewater Solutions is partnering with national energy groups and global electricity generator suppliers to tailor Build, Own Operate and Maintain (BOOM) partnerships. These partnerships package finance, machinery and operational expertise over agreed terms to enhance the long-term affordability of green energy projects, including those that extract biogas from wastewater streams while simultaneously cleaning wastewater to some of the highest global discharge standards.