Summary

Winery wastewater management represents one of the big issues facing the wine-producing countries due to the seasonal nature of wine production and the release of variable volumes of wastewater that contain high and unequal concentration of organic and inorganic contaminants. Therefore, development of new technologies and innovative solutions for winery effluents treatment, which are in accordance with the concept of sustainable development, is serious and current worldwide problem.

Technology Description

Development of bioethanol production process on winery wastewater applying the biorefinery concept represents economical and eco-friendly solution for winery wastewater utilization. Additional benefit of this technology is accumulation of bioethanol that is considered as important raw material abundantly used in all strategic fields of development as well as renewable energy source and attractive alternative to fossil fuels. Hence, the implementation of the biorefinery concept in wineries is significant for both winery wastewater treatment and improvement of bioethanol production process.

Main advantages

The most important advantage is formation of commercially valuable products, which increases the profitability of wine production. On the other hand, the majority of established treatment systems for winery wastewater have been designed with large aeration tanks to deal with peak load conditions during the harvest period. As a result, wastewater treatment facility is oversized and quite difficult to manage. Moreover, wineries often do not have sufficient space available for its installation nor the financial resources necessary for such an investment. However, the greatest drawbacks of conventional methods for winery wastewater treatment are overproduction of sludge or other by-products and disposal of them. Since in most cases the waste is converted from one form into another, these methods do not bring benefit to wineries making the wine production economically and environmentally unsustainable.Development of bioethanol production on winery effluents also has few advantages. The preparation of media based on winery wastewater does not require consumption of drinking water for dilution and addition of pure chemicals as nutrients. Additionally, there is no need for acidic, alkaline, enzymatic or other pre-treatment of these raw materials, which is not the case for the many usually used feedstocks in bioethanol industry.

Stage of development

This technology is validated in lab.

Challenge and needs

The greatest challenges for society nowadays are to meet the increasing demand for energy in a sustainable and ecological manner because the usage of conventional energy sources has a negative environmental impact. So, the improvement of bioethanol production process is a priority research field at the international scale. Implementation of the biorefinery concept in wineries, i.e. bioethanol production on winery wastewater within the same winery is possible since the numerous wineries also produce strong alcoholic drinks and therefore have incorporated distillation facility. In addition, yeasts used for wine and other alcoholic drinks production are excellent bioethanol producers, while existing equipment, for example wine fermentation tanks, can be used for both bioprocesses. However, bioethanol obtained by distillation cannot be applied as biofuel, which indicate the need for rectification column installation. Final bioethanol processing also can be done in the nearest distillery thus reducing additional installation costs.

Intellectual property

The technology is not yet protected by a patent.

Potential markets and targets

This technology can be applied in counties in which the wine industry has developed. Of special interest are regions with a large number of wineries due to potential collection of wastewater in one facility. Considering that opening new wineries is of great interest for the community because it connects a numerous important branches of the economy, including tourism and catering, the market potentially interested in the application of proposed technology for winery wastewater utilization will be expanded. In addition, the bioethanol market, both locally and globally, is large and has a constant upward trend because the fields of its usage are very diverse. More importantly, the future energy supply must be met with a simultaneous substantial reduction of greenhouse gas emissions thus the actions towards this aim have been initiated.   

Potential partners

The potential partners that could co-develop this technology are: the wineries that has installed distillation facility, the wineries that are located near the wineries with installed distillation facility, the wineries that are located near the bioethanol factory, the bioethanol factories.