The use of centrifuges in wineries
Centrifugal clarifiers and decanters can be employed in a variety of process stages in wineries.
The undoubtedly most frequent applications of centrifuges in wineries are for the clarification of the must and
young wine (1st racking). Furthermore, there are various other applications for clarifiers in wineries that are, however, less common.
Decanters are also employed in wineries, but essentially limited to the large wineries.
The potential applications of centrifuges, separators and decanters in wineries are described briefly below.
The use of separators in wineries
Clarifiers in special designe are generally employed in order to remove the impurities (e.g. broken cells, soil from the vineyard,
sand, residues of pesticides, etc.), micro-organisms (e.g. bacteria, fungi, etc.) and floating solid materials
(from decayed grapes) contained in the must.
The wine can be clarified at various stages of the production process. These are described briefly below
Clarification of young wine, 1st racking
Special clarifiers are also employed to remove the yeast from the wine at the end of the alcoholic
fermentation process.
Clarification of the finished wine, 2nd racking (clearing racking)
Here the racked wine undergoes a fine clarification in a special clarifier. This significantly
increases the service lives of the downline filters.
Clarification of must with flotation in the centrifuge outlet
Clarification of still wine for sparkling wine and champagne
Clarification of sparkling wine and champagne
The use of decanters in wineries
The must leaving the screw press is generally very cloudy and can be preclarified in a decanter in special design.
The sediment from the must tank and the must residues discharged from the clarifier can be thickened using special decanters.
The yeast sediment from the fermentation tanks resulting from the 1st racking and from the clarifier can be thickened using special decanters.
In order to minimise the solid matter discharged into the waste water system, a decanter in special design can be employed to dewater thin-bodied sludges.
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