Brewery in São Paulo State, Brazil

Project Background

This brewery produces approximately 500,000 hectoliters of beer annually. Wastewater mainly comes from mashing, fermentation, and bottling. The existing UASB (Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket) + aerobic process performed reasonably, but effluent COD remained between 180‑220 mg/L, failing to meet stricter new local discharge standards (COD < 100 mg/L). The plant had limited space and could not build new tanks.

MBBR Retrofit Solution

A post‑treatment MBBR stage was added after the aerobic tank by repurposing part of the existing equalization tank. High‑specific‑surface‑area MBBR Media (750 m²/m³) was used at a 50% filling ratio.

Retrofit Results

● Effluent COD reduced from ~200 mg/L to 85 mg/L, meeting the new standard.

● BOD reduced from ~50 mg/L to 12 mg/L, removal efficiency 76%.

● Total nitrogen removal reached 70%.

● System operated stably without additional chemical dosing.

● Retrofit completed in just 21 days.