Oportunities and challenges of using constructed wetlands for the treatment of high-strength distillery effluents: A review

Possible Pollution of Surface Water Bodies with Tequila Vinasses

“…In the Atizcoa Stream, it can be seen in Figure 5 that the values of these parameters increased as the stream ran through the TFs. It has been reported that TSS reaches up to 24.7 g/L in tequila vinasses [4], so vinasse discharges significantly impact the concentration of these two parameters. The turbidity in the Atizcoa Stream ranged from 16 to 785 NTU and the TSS ranged from 36 to 829 mg/L.…”

“…It is recommended that tequila vinasses be treated using conventional wastewater treatment processes such as pretreatment, primary treatment, secondary treatment (physicochemical and/or biological), and advanced treatment processes. In cases of companies that cannot afford a conventional wastewater treatment plant, such as micro-and small factories, low-cost alternative technologies are recommended such as constructed wet-lands [4] or advanced oxidation processes [37]. In addition, vinasses could be used and valorized for other applications such as the generation of biogas [38], the production of microbiological culture media in bioprocesses and bioremediation [39], or as raw material for the production of animal foods [40] due to the high content of organic matter, water, and nutrients such as potassium, calcium, magnesium, sulfur, and nitrogen.…”

“…Tequila production is an iconic activity of great social and economic importance for the producing regions of Mexico, particularly for the state of Jalisco [1,2]. However, throughout the tequila production process, a liquid residue is generated at the bottom of the stills during the distillation process of the fermented must known as tequila vinasse [3,4]. In general, the number of tequila factories (TFs) that treat their vinasses prior to discharge is low, since it is mainly large companies that do so [5].…”

“…In general, the number of tequila factories (TFs) that treat their vinasses prior to discharge is low, since it is mainly large companies that do so [5]. The rest of the companies do not treat their effluents, mainly justifying this decision with the economic limitations (especially micro-and small companies) of paying for the construction, operation, maintenance, and personnel of a conventional wastewater treatment plant [4]. Therefore, the untreated vinasse ends up being discharged into the soils or surface water bodies (rivers, streams, and lakes) located in the tequila production regions, without complying with the requirements established by current Mexican regulations [2,6,7].…”

“…Different studies have shown evidence for the negative consequences for the environment of vinasses from other types of industries but with similar characteristics to tequila vinasses [12]. Among them, the evaluation of the toxicity of sugarcane vinasse from the production of refined sugar and ethanol stands out [4]. It was found that vinasse has toxic and cytotoxic potential in fish liver and that this depends on the concentration of vinasse in bodies of water [13,14].…”