NANOFILTRATION AND REVERSE OSMOSIS IN WINEMAKING

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Authors and Publication Details

Authors

A. Massota, M. Mietton-Peuchota, C. Peuchotb and V.

Milisica

Authors
Address

Publication
Year
2.0

Equipe Gnie des Procds et Environnement, UMR OEnologie INRA),

Universit Bordeaux 2, France
Tel. +33 (5) 5684 6495; Fax +33 5 5684 6468, -97; email: mmp@genproc.ubordeaux.fr
b
Institut de la Filtration et Techniques Sparatives, Agen, France
2007

Research Objective
The aim of this paper is to present both the application of membrane processes in

winemaking and a general philosophy of their development from a process engineering

aspect.

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Introduction
Generally, there are 5 processes of wine production beginning starting with harvesting

until it is bottled and packed. Refer figure 1.

Harvesting

Crushing
and
Pressing

Fermentati
on

Clarificatio
n

Bottling

Figure 1: Wine Production Processes

Source: 5 stages of the wine making process, Laurel Grey Vineyard

Stage 1: Harvesting
Harvesting is the first stage of the wine making process. Grapes are choosing as raw materials
because grapes only fruit that have the necessary acids, esters, and tannins to consistently

make natural and stable wine. Tannins are textural elements that make the wine dry and add
bitterness and astringency to the wine.
The moment the grapes are picked determines the acidity, sweetness, and flavor of the wine.
Determining when to harvest requires a touch of science along with old fashioned tasting.
The acidity and sweetness of the grapes should be in perfect balance, but harvesting also
heavily depends on the weather.
Harvesting can be done by hand or mechanically. Many wine makers prefer to harvest by
hand because mechanical harvesting can be tough on the grapes and the vineyard. Once the
grapes are taken to the winery, they are sorted into bunches, and rotten or under ripe grapes
are removed.
Stage 2: Crushing and Pressing
After the grapes are sorted, they are ready to be de-stemmed and crushed. For many years,
men and women did this manually by stomping the grapes with their feet. Nowadays, most
wine makers perform this mechanically. Mechanical presses stomp or trod the grapes into
what is called must. Must is simply freshly pressed grape juice that contains the skins, seeds,
and solids. Mechanical pressing has brought tremendous sanitary gain as well as increased
the longevity and quality of the wine.
For white wine, the wine maker will quickly crush and press the grapes in order to separate
the juice from the skins, seeds, and solids. This is to prevent unwanted colour and tannins
from leaching into the wine. Red wine, on the other hand, is left in contact with the skins to
acquire flavour, colour, and additional tannins.
Stage 3: Fermentation
After crushing and pressing, fermentation comes into play. Must (or juice) can begin
fermenting naturally within 6-12 hours when aided with wild yeasts in the air. However,
many wine makers intervene and add commercial cultured yeast to ensure consistency and
predict the end result.
Fermentation continues until all of the sugar is converted into alcohol and dry wine is
produced. To create a sweet wine, wine makers will sometimes stop the process before all of
the sugar is converted. Fermentation can take anywhere from 10 days to one month or more.
Stage 4: Clarification
Once fermentation is complete, clarification begins. Clarification is the process in which
solids such as dead yeast cells, tannins, and proteins are removed. Wine is transferred or
racked into a different vessel such as an oak barrel or a stainless steel tank. Wine can then
be clarified through fining or filtration.

Fining occurs when substances are added to the wine to clarify it. For example, a wine maker
might add a substance such as clay that the unwanted particles will adhere to. This will force
them to the bottom of the tank. Filtration occurs by using a filter to capture the larger
particles in the wine. The clarified wine is then racked into another vessel and prepared for
bottling or future aging.
Stage 5: Aging and Bottling
Aging and bottling is the final stage of the wine making process. A wine maker has two
options: bottle the wine right away or give the wine additional aging. Further aging can be
done in the bottles, stainless steel tanks, or oak barrels. Aging the wine in oak barrels will
produce a smoother, rounder, and more vanilla flavoured wine. It also increases wines
exposure to oxygen while it ages, which decreases tannin and helps the wine reach its optimal
fruitiness. Steel tanks are commonly used for zesty white wines. After aging, wines are
bottled.
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Paper Content Discussions

This paper is focused only for clarification process whereby this paper suggests

suitable techniques based on objectives of clarification process. Refer table 1.

Table 1:
Various Techniques of Clarification Process

Objectives
Concentration of must
Reduction of the sugar content in must
Partial alcohol removal

Reduction of volatile acidity

Tartaric Stabilisation
Bad taste reduction
Reduction of malic acid
pH control

Processes
Reverse osmosis
Ultrafiltration and nanofiltration
Ultrafiltration and evaporation
Reverse osmosis 1 and 2
Reverse osmosis and distillation
Reverse osmosis and membrane contractor
Reverse osmosis and anionic resin
Reverse osmosis and reverse osmosis
Reverse osmosis and adsorption
Electrodialysis
Nanofiltration and microfiltration
Nanofiltration and resins assorption
Nanofiltration and PVPP
Nanofiltration and nanofiltration
Electrodialysis

Tentative elaboration is studied in this paper regarding method to control alcohol

content (partial alcohol and sugar content remove), volatile acidity or malic acid reduction,
acidification of wines and flaw defect elimination (bad taste).

Basically, sugar content is associated with maturity of phenolic compound in the

grape barriers. It is due to the high maturity of the phenolic compound contained high
quantity of sugar and at the same time it produce high alcohol content which can be up to
17%. Usually, in order to reduce the alcohol content; (1) nanofiltration, (2) evaporation
treatment and (3) reverse osmosis membrane are used.
The maximum degree of concentration for (1) nanofiltration that basically using 0.65
m and 0.45 m filtration cartridges is based on the resistance of the membrane under
pressure usually around 75 bar. This paper also highlighted the maximum sugar concentration
obtained is approximately 400 g/L.
(2) Evaporation treatment is used to remove a partial alcohol using two membranes
with different selectivities which influence its final concentration.
(3) Australian company Memstar and Californian company, Vinovation proposed a
reverse osmosis membrane followed by a membrane contactor (Liquid Cel by
Membrana).which reduce until 10% alcohol content.
For volatile acidity or malic acid reduction; coupling reverses osmosis and ion
exchange resins (weak anionic resins) can be used in rapid resumption of alcoholic
fermentation stopped in 75% of lots. Volatile acidity or malic acid also can be reduce by
coupling two stages of reverse osmosis (membrane DESAL, NaCl retention rate >99%). The
first filtration contains free acids, salts, esters and other small molecules (40-50% acid
rejection content) whereas second filtration contains free acids (90% acid rejection content).
Potassium that functions as neutralizer also is added into second stage which acid containing
wine.

Figure 2: First and Second Stage of Volatile Acidity Reduction

In case for flaw defect elimination (bad taste), the paper highlighted a research that
trying to reduce 4-ethylphenol and 4-ethylguaiacol by combining nanofiltration and
adsorption. A hydrophobic adsorbent resin (XAD-16HP) is as treatment for nanofiltration and
recycled up to the level of desired concentration.
Tartaric acid stabilisation that included in flaw defect elimination also can used
nanofiltration and microfiltration. The first stage, the wine is concentrated by a nanomembrane until the precipitation of the tartar. The crystals are then eliminated by
microfiltration and the two permeates are gathered. The process clarifies the wine at the same
time.