A comprehensive approach to winery wastewater treatment: a review of the state-of the-art

Winery industries generate large volumes of high-strength wastewater whose characteristics greatly vary depending on either seasons, production technologies or scale of the wineries. Winery wastewater (WW) is persistent to degrade by means of the conventional activated sludge process because of the high organic loading and polyphenolic content especially during vintage. To face this situation, a number of processes have recently been attempted as alternatives or integrative to biological treatments. However, there is still no agreement on the best practice to treat WW. Despite even more stringent standards, untreated or partially treated effluents continue to be improperly discharged into aquatic or soil matrixes, influencing microbial communities and physicochemical soil properties. This work presents a review on the state-of-the-art of management of wastewater originated from winery industries. Advantages and drawbacks of the treatment technologies at bench-, pilot-, and full-scale applications in the scientific literature have been considered to draw out a sustainable management scheme.