As sustainability goals tighten and water resources become more constrained, recovering nitrogen and phosphorus offers a practical next step for beverage and winery producers.
Resource recovery lets you transform a challenge into an asset for your beverage operation
Wineries and producers of other beverages generate wastewater streams rich in organic matter and nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus. Traditionally, these nutrients have been removed to meet discharge regulations, with the resulting waste streams treated as a disposal challenge rather than a recoverable resource. But across the food and beverage industry, that mindset is starting to shift. More producers are recognizing that wastewater is not just something to manage, but a potential source of recoverable value.
This shift toward viewing wastewater as a resource also aligns with Fluence’s broader approach to water management, which focuses on integrating treatment, water reuse, and resource recovery into a single, efficient system. Wastewater from beverage and winery operations can be challenging to treat because it is often:
- High-strength, with elevated biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) from sugars and organics
- Subject to fluctuating flows tied to production cycles
- Rich in nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus
While these characteristics have historically made compliance the primary goal, they also represent an opportunity to recover value.
Nutrient Recovery
Advanced treatment technologies now make it possible not only to remove nutrients, but also to capture and repurpose them for beneficial use. Biological nutrient removal systems, membrane bioreactors (MBR), and anaerobic digestion can be combined to stabilize wastewater, reduce nitrogen and phosphorus levels, and create usable by-products. In practice, this can mean converting organic waste into biogas for energy, reclaiming treated water for reuse within the facility, or capturing nutrient-rich streams for repurposing in agriculture.
This more holistic approach to water is already visible in beverage applications. For example, Fluence’s work with Monster Energy demonstrates how advanced membrane and reverse osmosis systems can optimize water use across operations. While that project focused on process water rather than wastewater, it reflects the same principle of optimizing water use across the entire operation. Increasingly, that mindset is extending downstream, where wastewater treatment is no longer just about discharge, but about recovery and reuse.
As a result, more beverage producers are pursuing broader sustainability and water reuse goals, with growing interest in treatment technologies that can recover nutrients and other valuable by-products from wastewater streams.
Supporting Circular Water Strategies
As sustainability goals become more ambitious and water resources more constrained, recovering nitrogen and phosphorus offers a practical next step for beverage and winery producers. It reduces environmental impact, supports regulatory compliance, and opens the door to more circular operations. Instead of viewing nutrients as a liability, facilities can begin to treat them as part of a broader resource strategy that improves efficiency and aligns with the future of industrial water and wastewater management.
One example of this approach is Fluence’s PHOS-PURE nutrient recovery technology. PHOS-PURE is a struvite recovery process that enables industries to remove and recover phosphorus and nitrogen from nutrient-rich wastewaters such as digestates, centrates, and filtrates.
The system helps reduce nutrient loading at existing treatment facilities while recovering phosphorus and nitrogen that can be reused as slow-release fertilizer. In the process, wastewater enters a reaction stage where magnesium, ammonium, and phosphate combine to form struvite crystals. These crystals are then separated and recovered, creating a sustainable solution that supports nutrient reuse and a more circular approach to wastewater management.
If your beverage or winery operation is exploring nutrient recovery, water reuse, or more sustainable wastewater management strategies, Fluence can help design a solution tailored to your operational and compliance goals.
