Water is one of essential requirements of all life supporting activities. It is the master solvent and all metabolic reaction of living beings depends mainly on its presence. It is also essential for agriculture, industries, drinking and many other domestic purposes. One of the most important environmental problems faced by the world is management of waste water. Industrial processes create a variety of wastewater pollutants; which are difficult and costly to treat. Wastewater characteristics and levels of pollutants vary significantly from industry to industry. Now-a-days emphasis is laid on waste minimization and revenue generation. Pollution prevention focuses on preventing the generation of wastes, while waste minimization refers to reducing the volume or toxicity of hazardous wastes by water recycling and reuse, and process modifications and the byproduct recovery as a fall out of manufacturing process creates ample scope for revenue generation. The aqueous distillery effluent stream known as spent wash is a dark brown highly organic effluent and strongest organic industrial effluents, having extremely high COD and BOD values because of the high concentration of organic load, distillery spent wash is a potential source of renewable energy. The paper reviews the status and appropriate treatment alternatives for disposal of the distillery wastewater.
