Recovery of tartaric acid from industrial enological wastes

The recovery of tartaric acid (TA) from three industrial enological wastes: (i) cream of tartar, (ii) lees, and (iii) eluates from the regeneration of anion exchange resins used for the production of grape liquid sugar, was s tudied. Recovery of TA ranged between 58 and 99%, the highest being from cr eam of tartar. The level of addition of calcium salts is important to impro ve the recovery of calcium tartrate from lees and eluates. A significant in verse correlation between TX recovery and the percentage of organic acids, except: for tartaric acid, was found; this index may hell; to optimize the level of calcium addition. Enological eluates would represent a commercial source of malic acid (recovery of 51%). (C) 2001 Society of Chemical Indust ry.