California brewing company’s water management strategy “turned on its head” by innovative onsite wastewater treatment system

Lagunitas Brewing Company, located in Petaluma, CA had a problem that many craft breweries (and other beverage producers) often face — how to dispose of the excessive amount of spent process water from its brewing facility. On top of that, like many California companies, Lagunitas faced the potential challenge of a water shortage in the long-term from the ongoing drought. With Cambrian Innovation’s EcoVolt Solution, Lagunitas found a solution.
“We were throwing away money by trucking our wastewater to a treatment facility,” said Leon Sharyon, CFO. “When we learned that we could treat it onsite for reuse and slash our utility costs by capturing the energy in our wastewater, we were ecstatic.”
On top of capturing clean energy from their wastewater, Lagunitas will now capture clean water. “Cambrian Innovation turned our water management strategy on its head,” Sharyon said. By integrating Cambrian’s newly designed EcoVolt MBR (an advanced membrane bioreactor) with the company’s EcoVolt Reactor, Lagunitas will have an energy-positive water reuse treatment train. “We are anticipating that the EcoVolt installation will bring our water to beer ratio down to approximately 2.5:1 which could be the lowest ratio in the craft beer industry. We are very excited about this.”
EcoVolt MBR is a polishing process that removes over 99 percent of pollutants and solids in wastewater, enabling immediate reuse onsite which helps cut costs and address pressing water resource needs. While Lagunitas will not use the newly purified water for brewing, they will use it for all the other water needs of the brewery, such as tank cleaning.
The containerized, prefabricated system combines Cambrian’s aeration technology with their proprietary automation to help beverage producers reduce their water footprint by up to 50 percent. “Our customers have the ability to recover immediately reusable clean water, as well as clean energy, when these two systems are integrated. Together, they provide the most energy efficient water reuse solution available” said Dr. Matthew Silver, Cambrian’s CEO and founder.
The systems are designed for use together or separately in any size operation and they can be remotely controlled, flexibly expanded and stacked for space-efficiency, Dr. Silver added. “Providing water-reuse and energy-saving solutions is a key part of Cambrian Innovation’s ongoing commitment to a circular economy and our mission to catalyze harmony between nature and industry. EcoVolt MBR is the latest step on the path to a sustainable world.”