Spent Filter Cake Recycling
Spent Filter Cake Recycling
A lot of industries use DE for their needs. These industries are major spent filter cake generators.
Key industries:
- Beverage and Food
- Chemical
- Swim Pool
- Corn Wet Milling
- Corn Syrup
- Sugar
- Mineral Oil
- Edible Oil
- Biodiesel
- Other
Breweries make up around 20% of the total volume.
Brewery Spent Cake Recycling/Disposal Routs
As you can see the major ways of disposal are landfill and land application.
Let’s make a pyramid of most preferable ways of waste elimination
Sustainable Alternatives – Anaerobic Digestion/Biogas
These alternatives require essential investments. That’s why the two most popular and “implementable” options for brewing are:
- Composting
- Land Application
Sustainable Alternatives – Compost
Haul waste to a site
Shrededdebris and mix DE
10% blend of DE in windrows
Composting
Challenges:
- Environmental regulations
- Cost of landfilling
- Disposal logistics
- Recycling operations wary of new waste streams
Solutions:
- Local, sustainable disposal process
- Permitted sites
- Competitive composting gate fees
- Auditable recycling rout
Results:
- Cost reduction on the landfill gate fee
- Processed, accredited compost available from a site
- Fully auditable and compliant recycling rout achieved
- The compost has a higher nitrate content and lower ammonia levels
Land Application
Challenges:
- Recycle spent cake rather than send to landfill
- Low cost of landfill
- Requirement to prove the agricultural benefit of spent cake
- Establish independent crop grow trials
- Identify and develop a working relationship with an agricultural company
Solutions:
- Local, sustainable and beneficial
- Cost-effective
- Regulatory compliance
- Auditable recycling route
- Develop a product with value
Results:
- Lowered cost of disposal with plan to eventually remove costs
- Produced a fertilizer with a marketable value
- Fully auditable and compliant recycling rout achived
- Identified optimum application rate for spent cake to achieve best results
- Quantified Maximum Economic return for recycling spent cake