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Benchmarking a continuous tartrate stabilisation system

Warren Roget

Introduction
IN THE FACE of ever-rising electricity costs, proactive wineries seek to understand the drivers of their power consumption and look to new technologies and/or processes to offset rising costs. With refrigeration typically responsible for 50-70% of power consumption in wineries, it is a clear focal point for potential efficiency gains, both from the efficiency of the plant itself and the winemaking processes that draw heavily on refrigeration. Potassium bi-tartrate stabilisation is an operation that receives a high level of scrutiny, as it is known to be one of the heaviest users of refrigeration. During late 2011, The Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI), in collaboration with Della Toffola Pacific and The Yalumba Wine Company, undertook an evaluation of a Continuous Tartrate Stabilisation (CTS) system designed to remove potassium bi-tartrate (KHT) from wine. The purpose of this evaluation was not to prove the concept: this is well established with numerous CTS units operating throughout Europe, but rather to collect robust information on the operational performance of the CTS system. The aim was to compare traditional cold stabilisation methods with the CTS system, analysing both the economic and environmental costs associated with each method. The trial was set up using the same base wine treated via the CTS system and the traditional cold technique. The performance of each technique was then assessed against a number of different key performance/ operational parameters including: power consumption water consumption wine losses labour requirements processing duration sensory impact.

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Trial design
The CTS system consists of four primary functional components: the heat exchanger, the refrigerated scraped surface chiller, the crystalliser and the filter trains. The layout of a typical CTS arrangement is shown in Figure 1. Additionally the CTS is equipped with a mixing tank that can be utilised to seed the stabilisation process with crme of tartar (CoT), either in the dry powder form, or by reusing previously collect tartrate. During processing, wine enters the system through a counter current heat exchanger which recovers energy from chilled product leaving the system. The wine then passes into the scraped surface chiller equipped with its own direct expansion refrigeration system. The chilled wine then enters the crystalliser tank which is designed to propagate and precipitate the KHT crystals which then fall to the bottom of the chamber. The system recirculates upon itself, via a conductivity sensor, until the wine complies with a predetermined conductivity set point. When the wine is deemed stable, it is then passed through parallel filter trains to ensure any suspended KHT crystals are removed before the wine is re-warmed as it exits the system via the heat exchanger. The filter trains consist of
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method, where the wine is refrigerated for three days at -4C, and inspected for crystallisation. Additionally, sensory difference testing confirmed that there were no differences in the sensory properties of the treated wines. Given the difference in the batch sizes, it was essential Mixing tank. to scale the key operational parameters to enable a true comparison. The results of both processes, scaled to 65,000L are Filtration. Heat exchanger. summarised in Table 1. These results show that CTS provides an extremely significant advantage over typical cold stabilisation methods in terms of a 95% reduction in processing duration and an 83% reduction in power consumption. The reduced power consumption can be attributed to the heat recovery that is undertaken when discharging the Control panel. stabilised wine, but also to the short processing duration. A very significant component of the power Figure 1 - A 10,000L/h continuous tartrate stabilisation associated with the typical cold stabilisation system, with key components labelled. method can be attributed to holding the wine cold for days or weeks at a time, not just the direct refrigeration energy, but the power a hydrocyclone prior to cartridge filtration to required for the reticulated brine system. remove the larger suspended solids. Inline Figure 2 shows the power consumption, The claimed key advantages of the CTS conductivity specifically the current on all three phases system are: sensor. during steady state operation. Here it can be improved operational efficiencies resulting seen that refrigeration unit cycles to maintain from on-demand technology the wine set-point temperature, however it is not shorter processing time required to run continuously to achieve this. The peak reduced power consumption current draw, when the refrigeration unit is operating, is reduced wine losses approximately 105A, and the baseline current draw, without reduced oxygen pick up. refrigeration, is approximately 20A. While there is scope to The evaluation was conducted utilising a 2011 Pinot Gris, and approximately 65,000L of wine was available to process using the CTS. In assessing the CTS unit against a typical cold stabilisation process, a typical process needed to be defined from the diverse range of processes used across the industry. Input was sought from several medium and large wineries, and this information was used to identify a typical cold stabilisation method. This process involved: refrigeration plant and brine reticulation system insulated tank fitted with agitator wine set-point temperature of -4C agitation for three days Must Chilling settling duration a minimum of four days Tank Cooling brine set-point temperature of -8C and dead band Barrel Stores adjustment +/- 1C Portable Chilling seeding additives: none used. Air Conditioning This process was evaluated using a 6,400L volume of the identical wine. While smaller than ideal, it was dictated by Designed in Australia production requirements. Manufactured in Australia

Scraped surface chiller.

Crystalliser.

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Summary of results
The CTS and the typical cold stabilisation methods both yielded wines with commercially acceptable levels of cold stability, as determined by the AWRI Commercial Services Laboratory
Table 1 Representative trial results when scaled to 65kL Performance metrics Processing time (h) Power consumption (kWh) Wine losses (L) Labour requirements (h) October 2012 Issue 585 CTS ~16 422 1,000 7.5 Typical cold stabilisation >300 2,451 1,300 9.5 Percentage change ~ 95% reduction ~ 83% reduction ~ 23% reduction ~ 21% reduction

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winemaking
practice heat recovery with the typical cold stabilisation method, the reality is that it is extremely difficult to schedule the subsequent operations to be timed accordingly. The wine loss using the two methods was comparable, with the CTS likely to offer a 20% reduction in wine loss through permanent installation and inf rast ructure/standa rd operating procedures to handle the wine held up in the filters at the end of processing. The labour requirements for both methods were comparable, however the CTS has the ability to operate automatically when permanently installed, meaning labour requirements will reduce considerably compared to these trial conditions. A key advantage is that the stabilisation and the filtration are being conducted concurrently, essentially removing an additional processing operation associated with the typical cold stabilisation The water use associated with the CTS was assessed, however, due to the small batch size processed relative to the full cleaning operation performed, the results were not representative of real world conditions. It is expected that the water use of the CTS would be

Figure 2 Measurement of the current draw (Amps) of the CTS during operation.

comparable to that of the typical cold stabilisation when the corresponding filtration operation is included in the assessment. An important consideration when interpreting these results is to take into account that the specific (per kL) power consumption, water consumption, wine losses and labour requirements are likely to decrease as the CTS batch size increases, and the performance relative to the typical cold stabilisation will further improve. A less tangible benefit of the CTS is the operational advantages potentially resulting from the shorter and more defined processing duration. This enables the further optimisation of production schedules, with a likely flow-

on benefit of reduced production costs. Additionally, the CTS has the potential to be used as a continuous process in line with packaging operations, rather than the batch process of the traditional method, with the associated benefits of eliminating a unit operation. Overall, the CTS has been validated to offer an alternative to the energy intensive process of typical cold stabilisation, offering very significant advantages in terms of energy requirements and processing time.
Warren Roget is the technical manager, commercial services at The Australian Wine Research Institute. Email: warren.roget@awri.com.au

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