ClearFox® Wastewater Treatment Solutions for Wine Industry

Winery wastewater management is important to the business and environmental performance of a winery and involves amongst others, a ‘fit for purpose’ treatment of winery wastewaters (eg. Irrigation or Processing water) and the reduction of environmental risks from wastewater discharges. Wastewater loads vary seasonally with high fluctuation and peaks followed by long lull periods.

During these lull periods, the wastewater can be highly contaminated and due to the poor nutrient situation, often only treatable with additional measures.

The composition of wastewater from the wineries are characterized by unused grapes and juice, winemaking remnants such as alcohol and sugars, inorganic salts, organic compounds, yeast, bacteria and chemicals such as cleaning agents.

The Wastewater characteristics vary from winery to winery and are significantly influenced by climate and wine type produced. Unique characteristics are the “high-strength” winery process wastewater (i.e. having more than 7,000 mg/L of BOD, with a TSS of over 3,000 mg/L).

Factors to consider are:

• Chemical (or Biochemical) Oxygen Demand (COD and BOD)
• Total suspended solids (TSS) and total dissolved solids (TDS)
• Salts such as sodium (Na), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), and potassium (K)
• Salinity (electrical conductivity)
• Nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus
• Acidity or alkalinity (pH)
• Dissolved oxygen levels (DO)

The three major categories according to their origin and composition are:

1. Processing water:
   Wastewater originates from the cleaning process of the raw material delivered and spillage within the winery. A high organic load indicates product (wine/grape juice loss, which is undesirable both economically and for the wastewater treatment.
2. Cleaning wastewater:
   Cleaning wastewater usually comes from washing equipment which is in direct contact with the products. These effluents are in large quantities and are highly polluted, include cleaning agents along with wine or grape juice suspended solids, thus requiring further treatment.
3. Sanitary wastewater:
   Sanitary wastewater is found in lavatories, shower rooms, etc. Sanitary wastewater is similar in composition to municipal wastewater and is generally piped directly to sewage works, but it can be used as a nitrogen source for unbalanced effluents before a secondary aerobic treatment.

Over the past 20 years, the Clearfox Team has successfully designed and built numerous compact batch plants which are successfully operated in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Germany.