The brewery is testing how a small amount of its wastewater — full of hops and yeast — reacts in two pilot treatment plants built into shipping containers at the brewery’s Bend headquarters. Results from the testing will help Deschutes decide how to design a full-scale facility.
On a peak day, the brewery sends about 150,000 gallons of wastewater to the city system and about 30,000 to Agri-Cycle, a company that trucks the brewery’s nutrient-rich waste of yeast, sugars and hops to farmlands within 20 miles.
An on-site treatment facility will be able to handle all the brewery’s wastewater that is currently sent into the city sewer treatment system and to nearby farmlands for irrigation. Read more here, from the bend Bulletin.