Influence of Winemaking Practices on the Characteristics of Winery Wastewater and Water Usage of Wineries

Abstract

The winemaking industry produces large volumes of wastewater that pose an environmental threat if not treated correctly. The increasing numbers of wineries and the demand for wine around the world are adding to the growing problem. The vinification process includes all steps of the winemaking process, from the receipt of grapes to the final packaged product in the bottle. To fully understand all the aspects of winery wastewater it is important to know the winemaking processes before considering possible treatments. Winemaking is seen as an art and all wineries are individual, hence treatment solutions should be different. Furthermore, wastewater also differs from one winery to another regarding its volume and composition and therefore is it vital for a detailed characterisation of the wastewater to fully understand the problem before managing it. However, prevention is better than cure. There are a number of winemaking practices that can help lower the volume of the wastewater produced to decrease the work load of the treatment system and increase the efficiency of treatment.

Grape Winery Waste as Feedstock for Bioconversions: Applying the Biorefinery Concept

“…Cleaning is not only done with water (cold or lukewarm) but also with solvents, detergents and chemical agents, such as sodium hydroxide. Each wine production step generates a varying amount of wastewater, with qualitative characteristics relevant to the process stage (Table 1) [63].…”

“…As can be easily assumed, the generation of wine demands vast amounts of water that have been estimated between 1 and 4 litres per litre of wine produced resulting into 26,000,000-100,500,000 hectolitres of water consumption globally per year [63], while less conservative calculations raise the number to 1,000,000,000 hectolitres per annum in worldwide wine production [63,65].…”

“…The high organic matter, indicated by BOD, chemical oxygen demand [5,6,59,63] (COD) and total organic carbon (TOC), results in reduction of oxygen levels in the aquatic environment causing death of several aquatic organisms and generating odours due to the anaerobic decomposition [63]. High alkalinity or extreme acidity, indicated by the pH, affects the solubility of ions and heavy metal content, thus making water toxic and influencing detrimentally both crops and marine organisms.…”

“…High ionic content or salinity indicated by electrical conductivity (EC) and total dissolved solids (TDS) influences the palatability of water, its uptake by the crops, the flora as well as the wellbeing of fauna. High content in solids, indicated by total solids and total suspended solids (TS and TSS), can reduce light transmission, endangering the ecosystem's health and smothering its habitants [63].…”

Seasonal Variation in Composition of Winery Wastewater in the Breede River Valley with Respect to Classical Water Quality Parameters

“…Winery wastewater contains high levels of K + and Na + , which originate from cleaning products, grape lees and spillage from the grape fermentation process (Laurenson, 2010;Laurenson et al, 2012;Conradie et al, 2014). The levels of these two ions are largely dependent upon the nature of the cleaning agents used in a particular winery (Mosse et al, 2011).…”