Treatment and Recycling of Wastewater from Winery

Abstract

Wine production is a multi-step process that consumes large quantities of water for various cleaning activities under different stages of its production. The effluent from winery is mostly acidic, but can vary from slightly acidic to basic. It contains organic acids, lees, ethanol, sugars, aldehydes, phenolic compounds and detergents. These contaminants in the winery waste water have high biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) which is detrimental to flora and fauna, if released un-treated into the environment. Production facilities equipped with recently developed water conservation equipments reduce the water consumption by 20% but results in more concentrated waste stream. Further if the facility have also a distiller, then the effluent BOD and COD level doubles. Hence, compliance to appropriate treatment protocols is necessary to reduce the toxicity of the effluent. However further advancement in treatment methods are needed to increase the efficiency and decrease the environmental foot print of the effluents. This book chapter discusses the various procedures followed for the treatment of winery waste water as well as highlights the recently developed advanced operation procedures that are at bench-side or in pilot-scale study.