Pune, Aug. 5

Thermax Ltd, the energy and environment solutions major, has designed a boiler that will burn distillery waste and spent wash into usable energy — steam and power. The boiler was commissioned at a leading distillery in Karnataka in June and has started operations in July end.

According to Mr M. S. Unnikrishnan, Managing Director, Thermax, spent wash is a brown liquid waste water, which is a by-product generated by the distillation of fermented molasses.

A typical distillery generates six to 15 litres of spent wash for every litre of alcohol. Spent wash is highly acidic with an offensive odour and it is a major source of ground water pollution. A typical distillery generates about 1,000 tonnes of spent wash every day.

An evaporator would concentrate this 1,000 tonnes waste to around 200 tonnes before it is fed into the boiler. Steam from the boiler will be used in the distillery process and would also co-generate two MW of power which would end the distillery’s dependence on power grid.

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