One
of the challenges of the circular economy is to implement the
recovery of resources from the generated waste in each industrial
sector. This valorization must be one of the main objectives at the
industrial level to be economically and financially sustainable and,
at the same time, reduce the environmental impact. This work focuses
on this perspective through the valorization of distilled vinasses
from the winery industry by means of tartaric acid recovery. A train
of membrane processes was experimentally tested for the distilled
vinasses treatment: electrodialysis (ED) followed by electrodialysis
with bipolar membranes (EDBM). The ED process was evaluated by varying
the membrane configuration (sequence in the cell unit), type of membrane
(different membrane properties), and type of solution (synthetic and
distilled vinasses from the winery industry). Distilled vinasses,
which mainly contained potassium hydrogen tartrate (KHT), were treated
in a lab-scale set-up with standard and organic selective anionic-exchange
membranes (AEM), as well as cationic-exchange membranes (CEM) for
ED and also with bipolar membranes (BPM) for EDBM. The results indicated
that it was possible to concentrate the KHT contained in the distilled
vinasses with a factor of 2 by ED, using standard membranes from Fujifilm
with the CEM-AEM-CEM configuration, and subsequently to produce 9.9
g/L of tartaric acid (H2T) and 5.6 g/L of potassium hydroxide
(KOH) by EDBM (following the (anode)-CEM-BPM-AEM-CEM-(cathode) configuration
and Fujifilm standard and PCCell BP membranes) with a purity of 69.7
± 1.3 and 77.3 ± 0.3%, respectively. In conclusion, the
integration methodology proposed (ED and EDBM) demonstrated to be
promising for the recovery of tartaric acid from distilled vinasses
following the circular economy approach.