Disposal of Antibiotic Spent Beers by
Triple Effect Evaporation
KEITH   H.   EDMONDSON
Chemical Engineer, The Upjohn Company
Kalamazoo,  Michigan
The Upjohn Company is currently manufacturing several antibiotics by deep vat fermentation. It is known that the spent beers
from these fermentation processes are extremely high in B.O.D. and
represent a substantial portion of the daily load to the waste treatment
facilities. The plant effluent, being discharged into a small trout stream
of 30 m.g.d., requires a high degree of stabilization to avoid detrimental results in the receiving stream. As has been described by
Hilgart and Edmondson (1), these spent beers are biologically stabilized
by conventional methods: i.e., primary sedimentation, application to
trickle filters, secondary sedimentation and chlorination. Overall B.O.D.
reductions of 85-95 percent have been consistently obtained, indicating
that antibiotic spent beers of the penicillin type can be adequately
stabilized by conventional methods.
During 1951 a sizeable expansion of fermentation facilities was
initiated. Since the spent beers from these antibiotic production processes
are a major source of B.O.D. load, any increase in production facilities
requires a proportional increase in waste treatment facilities. It will
be the function of this paper to outline the rationale leading to the
selection of an evaporator for the solution of this waste treatment problem, a brief description of the equipment utilized, a resume of the
operating data accumulated to date, and finally a short summary of
cost data. »
As an indication of the magnitude of the B.O.D. load prior to the
expansion of the fermentation facilities, an average of 3,500 pounds of
B.O.D. was being received by the waste treatment plant per day.
Extrapolation of this data to include the spent beers from the expended
fermentation facilities indicated that approximately 8,000 pounds of
B.O.D. per day could be anticipated. It was obvious that an enlargement of the existing treatment facilities would be needed, or a supplementary type of treatment would have to be devised.
One primary consideration in the selection, of course, is the cost
of the facilities for waste treatment.   Here both initial capital invest-
46