Wine Clarification with a Crossflow Microfiltration System

¹ Wine and Spirits Laboratory, Seitz-Filter-Werke, P. O. Box 2363, 6550 Bad Kreuznach, FRG.

Initial testing involved laboratory equipment and subsequently field tests with a 2-m² pilot plant. The objective was to investigate the effects of different process parameters, such as linear flow velocity, operating pressures, temperatures, and periodic back-flushing. Based on the results of these trials, a small industrial-scale plant was developed and assembled. With this fully automated compact and mobile plant with a filter area of 10 m², further trials were carried out which provided valid data for large-scale operations. Plant performance, its application possibilities in a winery, economic and sensory aspects, as well as effects on chemical compositions, involving a variety of white and some red wines were studied in a large Mosel winery, where ca 700 000 L of different wines in different stages of processing have been manufactured with this pilot plant.