Water & Wastewater Asia March/April 2024

HOTSEAT
Fig. 3: Expired wine effluent treatment using ECR testing reactor
BEVERAGE EFFLUENT WASTE
TREATMENT
HAIDRO has validated the ECR
technology with beverages effluent in
collaboration with Singapore-based
waste management company at a
treatment capacity about 100L/day.
ECR technology helped the client to
achieve zero liquid discharge (ZLD)
and zero liquid waste disposal cost
by converting the liquid like wine
and beer to organic nutrient. Wine
effluent was reportedly transformed
to 30% of organic nutrient pulp
volume after 3hrs of ECR treatment,
while generating 72W output power
without consuming any external
electricity. Organic pulp was then
mixed with wood chip matrix tested
for composting properties. The same
tests were performed with wood
chips matrix as a control sample for
this trial.
The wood chip sample with organic
pulp demonstrated at least two
times higher in fungal growth,
compared to the control sample.
Microscopic analysis also showed
that fungal strands in compost
sample with organic pulp were larger
in size compared to control sample.
Higher fungal growth properties
make produced organic pulp as
potential organic fertiliser for farming
applications. The client — who
previously disposed liquid beverage
waste through incineration at a cost
of S$400/tonne — benefitted from
the ECR technology, resulting in
zero disposal costs. There is also a
reported potential for an additional
revenue increase of 300%, with an
ROI expected within 6 months.
LOW-ENERGY DESALINATION
Typical desalination process requires
large amount of chemicals for
pre-treatment, high pressure
membranes for reverse osmosis
(RO), and high energy to operate the
plant. These plant operators spend
about 40-50% of total operational
and maintenance (O&M) expenditure
on energy and chemicals combined.
Hence, there is potential to lower
both the capital and operational
costs to achieve sustainable
desalination process.
ECR tested seawater collected from
Changi beach to demonstrate the
pre-treatment of seawater of about
22000 parts per million (ppm)
within 30mins, without any external
electricity and output power of
about 3W. ECR achieved about 1
Nephelometric Turbidity Unit (NTU)
of output turbidity and less than
100ppm of COD, which meets RO
input requirements. ECR was thus able
Fig. 4: Microscope
images of composted
samples
Water & Wastewater Asia | March-April 2024 51