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Abstract A full-scale wastewater treatment plant where municipal and winery wastewaters were co-treated
was studied for five years. The experimental results showed that suspended solids, COD, nitrogen and
phosphorous were effectively removed both during the treatment of municipal wastewater and the co-
treatment of municipal and winery wastewater. The sludge production increase from 4 tons to 5.5 tons per
day during the harvesting and wine making period. In any case the specific sludge production was
0.2 kgMLVSS per kgCODremoved despite the organic loading increasing. About 70% of the COD was
removed through respiration. Also the energy demand increased from 6,000 to 7,000 kWh per day. The
estimated costs for the treatment of the winery wastewater was 0.2–0.3 Euros per m3 of treated
wastewater. With reference to the process efficiency, the nitrogen removal was just 20%. The co-treatment
of municipal and winery wastewater in conventional activated sludge processes can be a feasible solution
for the treatment of these streams at relatively low costs.
Keywords Activated sludge model; activated sludge process; energy consumption; winery wastewaters
Introduction
The worldwide production of wine in 2003 was nearly 267 million hl, an increase of
9 million hl (3.5%) compared with 2002. Europe, with a total production of 187 million
hl, still leads the rank with 70% of the production: France, Italy and Spain showed a
similar production of some 42 –46 million hl. Americas posted a total production of 45.8
million hl with the major increase in Chile (19% with respect to 2002). According to the
figures presented, it is evident that wine represents a very important market for several
countries. One of the drawback of wine making and bottling is the production of huge
amounts of wastewater, generally some 1.2–1.4 litres per litre of wine produced, up to 4
litres (Vlyssides et al., 2005). The treatment and disposal of winery wastewater still rep-
resents a controversial issue because of its particular characteristics: a high organic load
associated with a high biodegradability. About 80% of total COD is soluble (mainly etha-
nol), the ratio BOD5/COD ranges between 0.5 and 0.6 and the ratio BOD5:TKN:P is
100:1:0.25 (Canler et al., 1998; Andreottola et al., 2005; Vlyssides et al., 2005). Accord-
ing to Andreottola et al. (2005) some 85% of the COD is soluble and mainly readily bio-
degradable (RBCOD) because of the presence of compounds like ethanol and methanol
(see Table 1); then, also several sugars and organic acids are present (Colin et al., 2005).
Furthermore, these wastewaters are characterised by a noticeable seasonal variability in
terms of flow and pollution load.
doi: 10.2166/wst.2007.475 79
Table 1 Characteristics of some Italian winery wastewaters in mg/l (Andreottola et al., 2005)
with chemical –physical pre- or post-treatments (Colin et al., 2005; de Heredia et al.,
2005). An interesting option for the treatment of these wastewaters is the possibility of
co-treating municipal and winery wastewaters in conventional wastewater treatment
plants (WWTP; Fumi et al., 1995; Chudoba and Pujol, 1996; Beck et al., 2005; Bruccu-
leri et al., 2005). This technique enables existing structures to be exploited without build-
ing new plants; furthermore, these plants may easily face the over-loading observed
during harvesting and wine making or bottling periods.
This paper is the prosecution of the one presented by Brucculeri et al. (2005) and
deals with the results and observations of four years of treatment of mixed municipal
and winery wastewater in a conventional activated sludge process. At the end, a possible
process modification to improve the plant efficiency is proposed.
30000
Flowrate, m3/d
COD load, kg/d
25000
20000
Value
15000
10000
5000
0
07
04
03
31
30
27
24
22
/0
/0
/0
/1
/0
/0
/0
/0
8/
1/
6/
0/
3/
8/
1/
6/
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
01
02
02
02
03
03
04
04
Days
80 Figure 1 Trends of the flow rate and the COD load in 2001 –2004
Raw
wastewater Effluent
1 2 3 4
Disposal 6 5
D. Bolzonella et al.
Figure 2 Plant schematic: 1: pre-treatment, 2: oxidation, 3: clarifier, 4: disinfection tank, sludge: 5:
thickening, 6: belt-filter press
water and sludge are separated in five settlers: three with a surface area of 1,038 m2 each
and two with a surface area of 770 m2 each.
Treated water is (eventually) disinfected and discharged. The sludge treatment process
consists of a thickening section followed by a belt-filter press and no stabilisation is
present. The plant was monitored for four years (from 2001 to 2004). The main character-
istics for the influent wastewater, the effluent and wasted sludge were determined in
terms of COD, suspended solids, nitrogen and phosphorous (all according to Standard
Methods), analysing both grab and average samples; furthermore, the operational
parameters of the biological process (hydraulic and solid retention time, sludge concen-
tration, flows) were also monitored.
1200 250
COD IN 200
COD OUT
COD out, mg/L
COD in, mg/L
800
150
100
400
50
0 0
/ 03 / 03 / 03 / 03 / 03 / 03 / 03 / 04 / 04 / 04 / 04
/6 /7 /8 /9 /10 /11 /12 /1 /2 /3 /4
15 15 14 13 13 12 12 11 10 11 10
Date
Figure 3 COD concentration during the harvesting and wine making period in 2003 –2004 81
COD IN
6000 600
TKN IN
5000 500
Kg/d COD IN
4000 400
kg/d TKN IN
3000 300
D. Bolzonella et al.
2000 200
1000 100
0 0
1° 2° 3° 4° 5° 6°
(Harvest) (Civil) (Harvest) (Civil) (Harvest) (Civil)
Period
Figure 4 COD load and TKN load of the influent during the different periods
† Harvesting, wine making and bottling period: from September to February. In this
period we observed the highest organic pollution load due to harvesting (September)
and wine production (October – December) followed by the bottling process
(December –February). In this condition the typical load exceed 3,000 kg of COD per
day and can occasionally rise up to 15,000 kg per day.
† Normal period: from March to August. In this period the organic pollution load is due
to the normal load originating from the municipality and is generally lower than
3,000 kg per day (see Figure 4).
However, it is important to emphasise that the peaks of concentrations are limited to a
few days so the average load during the harvest periods is only 20 –30% greater than the
one observed during the rest of the year.
While the COD loads differed according to the operation, the TKN load was constant
and equivalent to some 450 kgN/d (see Figure 4). The same was true for TP which
showed a typical load of some 35 kgP/d. The variation of the COD load and the stability
of the TKN resulted in different COD/N ratios ranging from 5.6 to 7.7 for the normal
period and from 7.7 to 13 for the harvesting period. According to these data the typical
loading of the plant was some 30,000 PE for the ordinary period, when only municipal
wastewaters were treated, while it reached the design capacity of 60,000 PE (on average)
during the periods of harvesting and wine making. With specific reference to the oper-
ational conditions applied during the two periods in these years, these are reported in
Table 2.
According to data reported in Table 2, it is clear that the high organic loads of the
harvesting were treated with increasing biomass concentration in the reactor. This
increased from 4 to more than 5–6 kg per m3. As a consequence the two different periods
D. Bolzonella et al.
obviously presented larger sludge production and these determined an increase of some
1.7 ton per day of sludge to be disposed of, for a total cost of some 36,000 Euros per
year. This additional cost is completely attributed to the treatment of winery wastewaters.
It is then important to note that a stabilisation step of sludge is absent in the plant and its
presence could reduce these costs. Despite the high content of MLSS in the bioreactor
and the increased load to the clarifiers, those did not undergo to difficulties; in fact, the
sludge volume index (SVI) was the lowest level during the harvesting period owing to
the increased settability of sludge. This fact can be probably ascribed to the formation of
floc-forming bacteria due to the high availability of organic substrates; SVI reached
values less than 100 cc/g in the period September –February and rose to values over
150 cc/g for the rest of the year. Figure 5 shows that the SVI decreased for increasing
COD loads. This resulted in a decrease in the loss of suspended solids in the effluent
from 35 to 20 mg/l. As a result, the COD, TKN and TP also showed very low concen-
trations in the effluent during the harvesting and wine making periods being the sus-
pended solids perfectly removed from the effluent.
Mass balances
With specific reference to the COD mass balance (Figure 6), the different operational
conditions during the harvest and the civil periods generated a similar distribution of the
COD mass balance with a prevalence of respiration processes (about 60– 70%) over
growth (about 23%) and with a COD in the effluent under 20%, except in the last period
when it increased to 25% due to the loss of suspended solids from the clarifier. It is
noticeable from Figure 6 that during all the periods (except the last) the percentage of
removal was about 80%. Finally, the COD concentration in the effluent averaged 50 mg/l,
except in period six which showed a removal of about 75%. With specific reference to
nitrogen, this was removed through biomass growth for 10% in almost all the periods
considered in this study (Figure 7). There are no evident differences between the two
200
180
160
140
SVI (cc/g)
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
0 0.25 0.5 0.75 1 1.25 1.5 1.75
OLR (KgCOD/m3d)
40.0
D. Bolzonella et al.
30.0
20.0
10.0
0.0
1° 2° 3° 4° 5° 6°
(Harvest) (Civil) (Harvest) (Civil) (Harvest) (Civil)
Period
periods: the percentage for nitrogen denitrified varied from 40– 55% and effluent nitrogen
varied from 37–48%, with TKN output near 10% of influent N. In terms of concen-
trations the effluent TN was some 15–20 mgN/l and nitrates were clearly predominant.
According to reported data, the process was not effectively controlled and the efficiency
in nitrogen removal was related to high or low organic loading.
Finally, total phosphorus in the effluent showed a constant concentration of
1 –2 mgP/l. The average removal efficiency was 50% without chemical addition.
Energy consumption
Further evidence for the difference between the harvesting and ordinary periods came
from data related to the energy consumption (see Figure 8). It is evident here, that energy
consumption increased during October and November, when the highest organic load was
observed. This was clearly due to an increased demand in oxygen requirements.
Compared to the rest of the year, the treatment of winery wastewaters determined an
increase of the energy consumption of 750 kWh per day (as an average) reaching values
of 475 Wh per m3 treated (equivalent to 120 Wh/PE). This value is similar to the highest
reported in the literature for the treatment of municipal wastewaters (Balmer and Matt-
son, 1994; Battistoni et al., 2003a, b).
Denitrification
60 Out N-NO3
Out TKN
50 Growth
40
N%
30
20
10
0
1° 2° 3° 4° 5° 6°
(Harvest) (Civil) (Harvest) (Civil) (Harvest) (Civil)
Period
8000
6000
KW/d
4000
D. Bolzonella et al.
2000
C ER
R
Y
R
Y
ST
H
IL
LY
AY
AR
AR
BE
BE
N
BE
C
JU
B
M
JU
AR
AP
EM
EM
U
TO
U
BR
N
AU
M
VE
JA
PT
EC
FE
O
SE
D
Months N
Biomass;
x NBCOD;
Biomass; 5,7
x NBCOD; 8,6
2,2
x COD; 5,2
21,6
x COD; s COD;
s COD; 48,6
s NB COD; 25,7 s NB COD;
66,7
4,3 11,4
Winery Municipal
Figure 9 COD partition in winery and municipal wastewaters (x and s are the particulate and soluble
fractions, respectively) 85
Table 3 Predicted effluent characteristics of an alternated cycle process (ACP)
Economic considerations
Considering the data reported it is possible to calculate the extra costs determined by the
winery wastewater treatment. As for energy consumption, the winery wastewater deter-
mined an increase for energy demand of some 750 kWh per day and an extra cost of
some e 25,000 per year. Considering sludge disposal we observed an extra production of
some 1.5 tons of sludge per day corresponding to some e 36,000 per year of extra costs
for sludge disposal. According to these figures, the specific cost for the treatment of
winery wastewater at San Bonifacio WWTP was e 0.25 per m3 of winery wastewater
treated in terms of pure operating costs for energy and sludge disposal.
It is evident how the treatment of winery wastewater in a conventional plant can be
considered a good solution for this problem: in fact, it is possible to avoid costs for new
plants and facilities as well as personnel costs. Furthermore, considering the specific case
study presented here, costs could be also lowered considering the application of the alter-
nated cycles process and the introduction of a stabilisation process to reduce the content
of the volatile solid fraction in waste activated sludge and reduce costs for disposal (the
digester is already present in the WWTP).
Conclusions
The possibility of co-treating municipal and winery wastewater in a full-scale treatment
plant was studied. The main conclusions deriving from the experimentation can be
resumed as follows:
† The oxidation process was able to handle the high COD peaks (up to 15,000 kg/d)
during harvesting and wine making period, from September to December. The high
solids retention times (SRTs) applied to the system, always greater than 20 days,
determined low production of excess sludge (Yobs ,0.25 gVSS/gCOD). The winery
and municipal wastewaters induced a similar growth of the activated sludge, but
during harvesting period the respiration rate was higher.
† Energy consumptions increased during the harvest period from 6,000 to 7,000 kWh
per day. It was calculated that the sum of energy costs and sludge disposal accounted
for e 0.25 per m3 of winery wastewater treated.
† The possible application of the alternated cycles process (ACP) could lead to a perfect
control of nutrients emissions. The simulation of the process emphasised that the
application of the ACP can lead to a nitrogen concentration in the effluent of
6– 7 mgN/l (now is 20 mgN/l), while the oxygen consumption could decrease from
292 to 225 kg oxygen per hour, a 23% reduction in energy consumption.
† According to the results shown, the co-treatment of winery together with municipal
wastewater in conventional WWTPs seems to be a feasible and reliable solution and
municipal WWTPs with unused capacity can effectively and economically treat
86 winery wastewater.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank the Consorzio Le Valli, San Bonifacio (Verona), Pierluigi Dodi, Dario
Masenelli, Giuliano Fontanesi and Antonio Fornasiero and SAGIDEP SpA for their valu-
able help.
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87