El Aguila really pleased
with anaerobic purification
I
One year after start-up ofAlgete installation:
Badly needed
Operational
Very fast
Fourteen employees of Mur
phy's Brewery in Ireland got
on their bikes last December
for a five-day trip from Dublin
to Cork. The cyclists repre
sented all departments of the
business: sales, marketing,
personnel affairs, production,
maintenance, customer ser
vices, finance and distribu
tion. This remarkable initia
tive was the idea of John
Tracey, a sales representative
with Murphy's Brewery in
Dublin.
One year ago Heineken International Magazine reported on
the activities of HTB's Water Environment department in the
area of wastewater purification. "Purifying waste water with or
without oxygen?" was (and still is) the question facing this
department which is headed by Mr. A.F. Klijnhout. In any event
a greater insight has been gained following the start-up of the
anaerobic water purification plant (without oxygen) at the brew
ery in Algete, Spain. What are the experiences with the new
plant?
HEINEKEN INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE NO. 18 PAGE 6
Flowing alongside the brewery is this stream into which El Aguila discharges
the purified waste water.
Murphyls cycled for
charity
struction of a big, and hence costly
buffer tank.
Salvatore Martin, now retired,
(see previous issue of Heineken
International Magazine) was closely
involved in the realisation of the
anaerobic purification plant in
Spain. "In 1984 we started on a pro
ject to improve the water purifica
tion of the Algete brewery. That
improvement was badly needed
because the big increase in the brew
ery's capacity meant that the old
aerobic plant could no longer cope
with the abundant supply of waste
water." Enlarging the aerobic purifi
cation plant would have been too
expensive in view of its high energy
requirements. The choice fell on an
anaerobic treatment plant, a much
cheaper and more cost-effective so
lution.
A start was made with a pilot
plant, anaerobic water purification
on a small scale, and samples of the
wastewater were analysed each day.
According to Mr. Martin, the results
were excellent. On the basis of those
encouraging results it was decided,
in consultation with HTB, to build
an anaerobic water purification sys
tem.
installation is fully computer-con
trolled.
However, this anaerobic process
alone is not sufficient to remove
every contamination from the water.
After treatment in the anaerobic
plant, the water is transported to the
aerobic installation for further pro
cessing. Since a large proportion of
the contamination has already been
removed from the water by that
time, the aerobic plant is now able to
handle these big quantities. After
that the water can be discharged
without any problems into the little
Jarama river which flows alongside
the brewery site. The purified waste
water amply meets the standards set
by the government.
In February 1987 the anaerobic
water treatment plant - the first
within Heineken - became opera
tional. The technical problems in the
initial phase were quickly overcome
and at the moment El Aguila is
really pleased with the results. The
One of the tanks in which the rotting
process takes place.
First, let's refresh your memory a
little. In aerobic purification effluent
is decomposed in water by oxygen-
breathing bacteria, also known as
activated sludge. The effluent is
removed from the water by the acti
vated sludge, leaving clean water
behind. Aerobic means that oxygen
has to be introduced into the pro
cess, which requires a great deal of
energy and is therefore costly.
What's more, activated sludge grows
in volume during the purification
process. The surplus (known as
excess activated sludge) has to be
removed. In brief: aerobic water
purification is an expensive process,
but one which yields an excellent
quality of discharge water without
problems.
Anaerobic purification in
volves a controllable rotting process
from which oxygen is excluded. Just
like the aerobic method, anaerobic
purification has its advantages and
drawbacks. The purification process
is very fast-acting and occupies less
space than an aerobic plant. Against
this, however, ensuring a uniform
supply of waste water (which is
needed for anaerobic purification to
operate optimally) requires the con
The trip, called the Murphy's
Irish Stout Mara-Cycle, was spon
sored by publicans in Ireland and
was organised to raise funds for
ALONE, a Dublin-based charity for
the poor, and for the Simon Commu
nity which provides help to the
homeless throughout the Republic.
During the five-day marathon it was
hoped to raise ten thousand pounds.
After the final count-up the organis
ers were delighted: a grand total of
Mr. Ben Brisco, Mayor of Dublin, wishes the fourteen participants in the
Murphy's Irish Stout Mara-Cycle every success on their five-day trip.
twelve thousand pounds had been
collected for the two charities.
On its first few miles out of Dub
lin the group was accompanied by
J.J. McCormack, the father of Irish
cycling champion Alan McCormack.
In the next few days the stop-overs
were in Kildare, Roscrea, Cahir and
Fermoy. In each town a Murphy's
Irish Stout promotion was held.
In Cork the cyclists were greeted
by general manager F. van der
Minne and commercial manager
M. Foley who escorted them to the
town hall for a welcome reception
hosted by the Mayor of Cork, Mr.
Bernard Allen.
Aerobic (foreground) and anaerobic work as a team at the El Aguila brewery
in Algete.
