Wine Lees as Alternative Substrate for Microalgae Cultivation: New Opportunity in Winery Waste Biorefinery Application

Paolina Scarponi, Marco Bravi and Cristina Cavinato ()
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Paolina Scarponi: Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics, University Ca’ Foscari of Venice, via Torino 155, 30172 Venice, Italy
Marco Bravi: Department of Chemical Engineering Materials Environment, Sapienza University of Rome, via Eudossiana, 18, 00184 Roma, Italy
Cristina Cavinato: Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics, University Ca’ Foscari of Venice, via Torino 155, 30172 Venice, Italy

Waste, 2023, vol. 1, issue 3, 1-9

Abstract: The winery sector represents one of the most important agricultural industries in Mediterranean country. Wine production processes generate a large amount of wastes and wastewaters that must be treated before their release in the environment. Among these wastes, wine lees, defined as the viscous material that settles on the bottom of fermenters, represent about 13% of the total wine production. The wine lees do not have applications within a circular economy approach, due to their low value; ethanol and tartaric acid are the only compounds recovered, while the rest is usually not valorized. The aim of this study is to explore the possible cultivation of microalgae on a liquid fraction of wine lees in a batch test at different substrate/inoculum dilutions. The results highlighted that Chlorella vulgaris can grow on wine lees at 1:10 and 1:5 dilutions, but a spontaneous yeast-microalgae consortium is observed (biomass production of 2 g l −1 ). A high lipid and protein storage was detected in the yeast-microalgae consortium (34.56 ± 13.70% and 39.73 ± 4.49%, respectively), associated with a high sCOD and polyphenols removal (99.95 ± 0.01% and 92.31 ± 0.02%, respectively), encouraging biological wine lees treatment.

Keywords: wine lees; microalgae; Chlorella vulgaris; circular economy; biorefinery; winery waste (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q16 Q18 Q2 Q20 Q23 Q24 Q25 Q28 Q3 Q31 Q38 Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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