Anaerobic treatment of winery wastewater assisted by booster materials

An organic xerogel modified with graphene oxide (OX-GO), and magnetite (M), were evaluated as booster materials (BMs) to improve the anaerobic treatment of winery wastewater (WW). The enhancing effect of BMs on the performance of anaerobic systems is clearly reflected in higher methane production rates and greater organic matter degradation in amended reactors, as compared to the unamended control. Highest impact under tested conditions represents an improvement of 25% in methane production rate and 18% in COD removal for OX-GO- and M-amended systems, respectively. An additional benefit of BMs supplementation in anaerobic WW treatment systems is increased protein hydrolysis and ammonification rates coupled with augmented biogas production in modified reactors compared to the control. Furthermore, the organic acids-enriched composition of winery effluents allows to produce valuable medium chain carboxylic acids by tuning operational conditions during anaerobic treatment.