Chemical and isotopic data of laboratory batch and column experiments using industrial wine wastes to biostimulate denitrification

Nitrate and nitrite are common pollutants in wastewater and agricultural runoff, and their removal is crucial to mitigate environmental impacts. The study focused on utilising sustainable and cost-effective carbon sources to enhance denitrification performance in nitrate-contaminated field water. Laboratory batch and column experimental work was carried out aimed at investigating the feasibility of using wine wastes as electron donors in a feasibility study to biostimulate biological denitrification. Two industrial wine wastes were collected from local wineries (lias and vinico). The samples were characterized for their organic carbon content to determine their suitability as electron donors. Two sets of denitrification reactors were set up, consisting of a series of crystal Pyrex® reactors. Each reactor contained nitrate-contaminated water, and gravel from the field, which was covered with aluminium crimp caps with septa and purged with Ar to create an anaerobic environment. Each series of reactors were biostimulated with the respective wine waste. Control reactors without wine wastes were also prepared for comparison. Lias was successful in removing nitrates in the batch experiment and was subsequently used in the column experiment to test its potential in a continuous flow system.  

The chemical and isotopic results of the two sets of parallel batch experiments and the column experiment are presented in this data.

A geochemical model was performed to simulate the experimental results for the future field application using the Phreeqc and the Gibbstudio software and iso.dat and the wateq4f databases.