African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 6 (17), pp. 1990-1993, 5 September 2007   

ISSN 1684–5315 © 2007 Academic Journals        

Full Length Research Paper

Anaerobic digestion of fungally pre-treated wine distillery wastewater

Xolisa Melamane, Roman Tandlich and Jo Burgess*

Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Biotechnology, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, 6140, South Africa.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: j.burgess@ru.ac.za. Tel: +27 46 603 8629 Fax: +27 46 622 3984.

Accepted 24 April, 2007

The combination of fungal pre-treatment with Trametes pubescens and anaerobic digestion were tested for the removal of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and phenolic compounds from wine distillery wastewater. The COD removal efficiency after fungal pre-treatment reached 53.3%. During digestion, pH buffering was achieved using CaCO₃ and K₂HPO₄. This provided a stable environment inside digester for efficient and time-independent COD removal. The total COD removal efficiency reached 99.5%, and the system proved able to eliminate shock COD loads, as indicated by the concentrations of sludge and volatile fatty acids. Complex changes of phenolic compounds are suspected in anaerobic digestion system, and are investigated further.

Key words: Chemical oxygen demand (COD), fungi, polyphenol, stillate and vinasse.