WINERY WASTE-WATER DEPOLLUTION BY SEQUENCING BATCH REACTOR

The aim of this study was to demonstrate a depollution process for the treatment of the effluents of small wineries, producing less than 15, 000 hl of wine per year. Given the particular characteristics of wine effluents and, in particular, the seasonal nature of the discharges, t he best solution was found to be a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) fed once a day, and equipped with upstream temporary storage facilities ac ting as a buffer. The performances of this process for the depollution of winery wastewater were studied during the 1994 grape harvest in a winery producing 7,300 hectolitres annually. The results obtained (93% of elimination for total COD; 95% for soluble COD; 97.5% for BOD5), a s well as the simplified automation, the low capital cost and the mode rate operating costs, show that the process is well suited to depollut ing wastewater from small wineries. Copyright (C) 1996 IAWQ.