Abstract
In oenology, the conventional dead-end filtration with filter aids, used for the processing of wine lees, consumes a high quantity of diatomaceous earth and brings serious environmental, sanitary and economic implications. In a real concern to improve wine quality and to decrease pollution, the “ecological filtration” concept based on the utilisation of a regenerative filter aid is proposed in this study. Polyamide particles were investigated as innovative filter aids for wine lees filtration. Trials were performed with two grades of polyamide particles D80 (D50 = 91.8 µm) and D100 (D50 = 111 µm). Filtration was carried out with wine added with two concentrations of lees (10.8 % and 20.2 %). The impact on wine quality was determined with oenological analyses, showing that the filtration made with polyamide particles did not modify wine organoleptic characteristics, improved turbidity and the filtrate fluxes are higher in comparison to the usual precoat filtration. Then, polyamide particle regeneration experiments proved that these particles could be reused as filter aids several times after cleaning.
Highlights
Filtration is a key step in the elaboration of many agro-food products such as fruit juices, beer or wine
A compromise has to be identified between all these parameters but we first verify that there is a potential difference in granulometry between our polyamide particles (D80 and D100)
The main objective of this project was to evaluate the potential use of a new reusable filter aid, Rilsan®, which can be adapted to devices already in use for coarse filtration
Summary
Filtration is a key step in the elaboration of many agro-food products such as fruit juices, beer or wine. Filtration could be performed using a filter media using diatomaceous earth (DE), perlite and cellulose called filtration aids. Pollutant content reaches 100 g to 2000 g of residue per hectolitre of filtered wine (11,000 tonnes/year in France) (Fillaudreau et al, 2008) mainly during wine lees filtration. Diatomaceous earth is made from the fossilised remains of tiny, aquatic organisms called diatoms. Their skeletons are made of a natural substance called silica. There are different types of filtration such as (i) sterilising filtration, which retains yeast and decreasing bacteria population (ii) clarifying filtration which maintains particles larger than 10 μm and (iii) coarse filtration to reduce suspended matter content. Coarse filtration is mainly intended for filtration of wine lees, pre-filtration, clarification of young wines or for wines with a low filterability
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