The impact of the winery's wastewater treatment system on the winery water footprint

Abstract

In the Mediterranean region, water scarcity has already prompted concern in the wine sector due to the strong impact it has on vineyard productivity and wine quality. Water footprint is an indicator that takes account of all the water involved in the creation of a product and may help producers to identify hotspots, and reduce water consumption and the corresponding production costs. In recent years several studies have been reported on wine water footprint determination, but mostly focused on the viticulture phase or assuming no grey water footprint at the winery since it has a treatment system. In the framework of the WineWaterFootprint project a medium-size winery was monitored, with direct measurements, regarding determination of the blue and grey components of water footprint. The determined winery water footprint ranged from 9.6 to 12.7 L of water per wine bottle of 0.75 L, the wastewater produced being responsible for about 98%, which means that the grey component cannot be disregarded. The developed scenarios show that a potential reduction of 87% in winery water footprint can be obtained with almost no investment. The challenge of reducing the grey footprint is not in technology development, but rather in the proper maintenance and monitoring of treatment systems.

Water-Sediment Physicochemical Dynamics in a Large Reservoir in the Mediterranean Region under Multiple Stressors

“…The drainage basins of Mourão and Montante are the most influenced by urban wastewater treatment plants' (WWTP) discharges, with the highest WWTP loads per unit area (49 p.e./km 2 and 44 p.e./km 2 , respectively) (Figures 1 and 3). The remaining point sources of pollution in the region were winery wastewater treatment plants with seasonal effluents, mainly produced during autumn-winter and characterized by high concentrations of nutrients and low pH values [46] (Figures 1 and 3). Lucefécit had the highest percentage of natural and semi-natural vegetation (29%), mostly constituted by the Montado landscape (typical in the Mediterranean region), which may act as a buffer to the pollution processes [45].…”

“…(Table S2). The records of the thermal cycle of the reservoir showed a warming tendency, with the progress of water temperature values at the wet period, of 9-10 • C in 2006 [32], 10-12 • C in 2012 [46], and 11-13 • C currently. In the dry period, the warming tendency at the surface is not so clear, probably due to the high influence of air temperature in the epilimnion.…”

Water Footprint Sustainability as a Tool to Address Climate Change in the Wine Sector: A Methodological Approach Applied to a Portuguese Case Study

“…If the water quality standards are not met, this discharge will lead to a pollutant load and consequent grey WFP. Some authors considered that winery grey WFP was nonexistent or almost nonexistent [14,20,28], while other authors consider that winery grey WFP exists [16] and may be the most important component, if compared with the overall value of winery WFP [27,31,70]. For both monitored years, the grey WFP component was responsible for more than 98% of winery WFP, as was also observed by Pina et al [70].…”

“…At the winery, WFP is related to the equipment and practices used, as well as the treatment efficiency of the wastewater treatment plant. Regarding grey WFP, usually the main component of WFP at the winery stage [27,70], it was noticeable that it has a high dependence on the wastewater treatment system, as well as its proper maintenance and management.…”

“…Other studies conducted in Portuguese wineries only considered the water consumption, characterizations of wastewater flows [33] or performed a sustainability evaluation of Portuguese wines based on the LCA methodology [34]. The impact of the wastewater treatment efficiency in the grey water footprint was recently assessed [27] but no holistic approach was given. The water footprint assessment was not evaluated at a wine farm level, regarding its temporal variability or its dependence on local factors.…”