How to Recycle Waste From Alcohol Distillation

At a distillery, to produce whiskey or any other spirit, raw materials must first be heated until they vaporize. Since alcohol has a lower boiling point than water, its molecules become separated in the vapor before being captured and recondensed back into liquid state by means of a condenser.

Distillers extract unwanted impurities such as fat, protein, stain and biological material from vapor produced during distillation process. Because this vapor is too watery for distilling purposes, distillers send it through another step where any remaining water can be evaporated from it using steam heat – creating boiler residue containing alcohol-water mixture with some fat paraffin and protein; typically over 99.9% pure recovered alcohol can then be stored or sold.

But that doesn’t have to be the end of it – especially when other industries might benefit. Distillers can redirect water used for condenser cooling into a closed loop system like Laws did at his brewery (reducing water usage by 11 liters per liter of spirits produced; see BIER report). Another opportunity could lie with local agriculture or food producers that might want some distillery waste as an ingredient replacement or fertilizer source; Maratek alcohol recycling equipment has recovery rates of at least 85% so this affordable option could help producers reduce waste that ends up in landfills or as part of an agriculture or food producer partnership agreement (see BIER report).