Processing and Sustainability of Beverages

Volume 2: The Science of Beverages

Alexandru Grumezescu, Alina Maria Holban

• Publisher: Woodhead Publishing
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN:
  9780128152591
• eBook ISBN:
  9780128156995
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Food Science
• Index: Technology & Engineering

Processing and Sustainability of Beverages, Volume Two in the Science of Beverages series, is a general reference of the current and future actions for a sustainable beverage industry. This resource takes a unique approach, combining processing with sustainability. Topics of note include waste treatment and management, environmental analysis for a sustainable beverage industry, and modern technologies for beverage processing to reduce contaminants and increase the quality. This book is essential to scientists, researchers and technologists in the beverages field, covering both alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages. - Covers a broad range of beverage products to increase knowledge of quality improvement and product development - Presents novel food processing technologies on beverage antioxidants - Offers sustainable management strategies for implementing added value in beverage products

1

Adding Sustainability to the Beverage Industry Through Nature-Based Wastewater Treatment

Dolores Hidalgo; Jesús M. Martín-Marroquín CARTIF Technology Center, Valladolid, Spain

Abstract

Although wastewater composition varies from one facility to the other in the beverage industry, what these streams have in common is pollutant constituents and their potential negative effects on human and on aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. These effluents present several risks to the environment and human health as they affect the present and future quality of water bodies due to the uncontrolled infiltration or voluntary direct discharge. This chapter presents the feasibility of traditional and nature-based in situ treatment processes for beverage effluents addressing the environmental problems associated with its management and providing the relevant socioeconomic and environmental values.

Keywords

Beverage industry sustainability; Circular economy; Microalgae; Nature-based solutions; Wastewater treatment

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge support of this work by the Agencia de Innovación, Financiación e Internacionalización Empresarial de Castilla y León. Project: Economía circular en el sector agroalimentario (Circular Economy in the Agri-Food Sector).

1.1 Introduction

Although wastewater composition varies from one facility to the other in the beverage industry, what these streams have in common is pollutant constituents and their potential negative effects on human and on aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. These effluents presents several risks to the environment and human health as they affect the present and future quality of water bodies due to the uncontrolled infiltration or voluntary direct discharge. The organic loading can cause a high depletion of dissolved oxygen in the receiving body of water through biochemical oxygen demand, which impacts a variety of larger organisms such as fish. Level of dissolved oxygen below 2 mg/L reduces cell functioning, disrupts circulatory fluid balance in aquatic species, and can cause their death. Nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus contents also cause water quality issues. If the nutrient in the wastewater is discharged directly into a water body without processing, it could potentially cause eutrophication, leading to a decrease in the diversity of the fauna and death of animal life over time. Inorganic compounds also result in increase of conductivity and salinity of the water and soil. When their level in water changes, it can be detrimental to aquatic life and can cause decrease in biodiversity in the affected area. High salinity also negatively affects the agriculture and infrastructure by creating unhealthy vegetation. Xenobiotic organic compounds as pesticides or fungicides are toxic to humans and ecotoxic and can cause serious illnesses. Therefore, control and treatment of liquid effluents is one of the biggest environmental issues in the beverage industry.

Direct discharge of beverage effluents into watercourses, although existing, is a forbidden practice today. Small beverage processing facilities usually do not have in situ treatment plants and they transport their effluents to sewer systems or municipal wastewater treatment plants, mixing them with the municipal waste streams. However, due to its high organic and ammonium concentrations, these streams cause problems due to extra loading in the biological sewage treatment plant. As consequence, the treatment plant needs excess energy, chemical addition, and more demanding operational skills to comply with the effluent limits. Sometimes this wastewater transfer causes the treatment plant overloading in certain periods of the year, thus, avoiding its correct operation. Bigger facilities usually pretreat their effluents by aerobic digestion, reducing the nutrient and organic loading before sending them to a municipal treatment plant for polishing.

Furthermore, this aerobic treatment generates large amounts of sludge that is usually managed as a waste. The most common sludge disposal option in these cases is landfilling. This sludge landfilling has clear negative environmental aspects: it is an inefficient way to use organic feedstocks-wasting resources, reducing nutrients valorization possibilities, and potentially increasing greenhouse gas emissions. As the European Union (EU) focuses on mitigating and preventing the consequences of global climate change there is a heightened awareness of the significant impact of landfill-generated methane emissions. This recognition is increasing the importance of recovering organics through composting, anaerobic digestion, or other emerging methods, since it is the organics that are buried in landfills that are the source of this methane.

This chapter presents the feasibility of nature-based in situ treatment processes for beverage effluents addressing the environmental problems associated with its management and providing the relevant socioeconomic and environmental values.

1.2 Environmental Problem Targeted

The beverage industry includes two major categories: (1) the nonalcoholic category comprising soft drink and water bottling and canning, soft drink syrup manufacture, fruit juices bottling, canning and boxing, the coffee and the tea industry, and (2) the alcoholic beverage categories including distilled spirits, wine, and brewing. This industry encompasses the harvesting of raw materials, the processing, packaging, transport, and distribution of the final products to consumers (Franson, 2013).

Between ...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• Contributors
• Series Preface
• Preface
• 1: Adding Sustainability to the Beverage Industry Through Nature-Based Wastewater Treatment
• 2: Alcoholic Beverages: Current Situation and Generalities of Anthropological Interest
• 3: Sustainable Business Models in Beverages Industry Networks: The Case Study of an Italian Breweries Network
• 4: The Sustainability of Mexican Traditional Beverage Sotol: Ecological, Historical, and Technical Issues
• 5: Quality Improvement and New Product Development in the Hibiscus Beverage Industry
• 6: Tradition and Innovation Within the Wine Sector: How a Strong Combination Could Increase the Company’s Competitive Advantage
• 7: UV-C Light for Processing Beverages: Principles, Applications, and Future Trends
• 8: Pectinases: Production and Applications for Fruit Juice Beverages
• 9: In Situ Analysis Devices for Estimating the Environmental Footprint in Beverages Industry
• 10: Hydrodynamic Cavitation Technologies: A Pathway to More Sustainable, Healthier Beverages, and Food Supply Chains
• 11: Influence of Processing on Rheological and Textural Characteristics of Goat and Sheep Milk Beverages and Methods of Analysis
• 12: Effect of Novel Food Processing Technologies on Beverage Antioxidants
• 13: Valorization of Residues From Beverage Production
• 14: Law and Science Make a Common Effort to Enact a Zero Waste Strategy for Beverages
• 15: Processing of Beverages by Membranes
• Index