Plastic Media Filter Keeps Whisky Distillery Water Outflow Clean

Plastic Media Engineering (PME), part of the SDS group (UK), has recently been involved in a refurbishment project at one of Scotland’s oldest whisky distilleries, the Tamdhu Distillery.

Nestling on the banks of the river Spey, near Elgin in Morayshire, the Tamdhu Distillery has seen a new filter system installed prior to its acquisition by Ian MaCleod Distilleries Ltd. The filter takes waste water from the distillery, which is filtered as it goes through cross flow plastic media, before running off back to the watercourse.

Due to a change in scale of production at Tamdhu, PME was tasked with demolishing and replacing the five existing filters and the distribution building with one modern trickle filter using PME’s latest technology.

The new system comprises a glass-lined galvanised tank some 7.5 metre in diameter and 4.7 metres high fitted with a rotary distributor, and has a GRP top and galvanised access ladder. Inside is 110m³ of PME’s 19mm cross flow plastic media in seven layers and made of recycled PVC. This plastic media is up to 2.5 times more efficient than other types of media and replaces the coke media that was used before, which is now hard to find.

Despite extremely cold conditions in Scotland in November and December last year, with temperatures down to –10°C and 12 inches of snow at one point, the PME installation team completed the project in 28 days. Sandy Coutts, distillery manager at Tamdhu who witnessed the project was very pleased with the progress made, commenting, “We were really impressed with how the project came together at quite some speed despite the prevailing conditions. We are pleased with the result and the plant is working efficiently”.

In the waste water treatment industry, PME is able to supply and install a wide range of structured cross flow and vertical flow media, media support systems, walkways, rotary distributors and variable speed electric driers. It also provides technical support in the sizing and design of plastic media trickling filters. The company also serves the cooling tower industry.

The wide range of solutions available from the SDS group means that systems can be designed to cover all situations and site constraints as the design teamwork with clients to ensure that a water solution is provided to exactly match the specific requirements of a development.