Abstract: Molasses based alcohol distilleries generate highly contaminated, dark coloured and foul smelling effluent (bio-methanated spent wash, BMSW, also known as post methanated effluent). While the prevailing practices for treatment of alcohol distillery effluents operate on the premises of “liability management”, high potassium content of spent wash (ca. 2% w/v in BMSW) offers an opportunity for its utilisation in production of potash fertilizers—a major agricultural input. The present invention provides process for potash recovery from BMSW with concomitant environmental remediation of effluent. The process involves pre-treatment of BMSW followed by potash recovery through selective precipitation technique to produce potash fertilizers and activated carbon while generating a relatively benign effluent (>80% remediation). It may further be possible for the alcohol distilleries to achieve ZLD status by incorporating commercially practiced water recovery techniques (viz.

Abstract: Molasses based alcohol distilleries generate highly contaminated, dark coloured and foul smelling effluent (bio-methanated spent wash, BMSW, also known as post methanated effluent). While the prevailing practices for treatment of alcohol distillery effiuents operate on the premises of “liability management”, high potassium content of spent wash (ca. 2% w/v in BMSVV) offers an opportunity for its utilisation in production of potash fertilisers—a major agricultural input. The present invention provides process for potash recovery from BMSW with concomitant environmental remediation of effluent. The process involves pre-treatment of BMSW followed by potash recovery through selective precipitation technique to produce potash fertilisers and activated carbon while generating a relatively benign effluent (>80% remediation). It may further be possible for the alcohol distilleries to achieve ZLD status by incorporating commercially practiced water recovery techniques (viz.

Abstract: The present invention provides process for production of potassium ammonium sulfate compound fertilizer through the reaction of Epsom salt, obtained in course of chilling of concentrated sea bittern (32-33° Be), with potassium bitartrate, precipitated from such bittern, and ammonium hydroxide. While process integration was achieved through utilisation of Epsom salt; partial desulphatation of bittern, through crystallization of Epsom salt, resulted in about 17% improvement in K+ precipitation efficiency.