Available online at www.sciencedirect.com Journal of Membrane Science 311 (2008) 136–146 Ethanol and aroma compounds transfer study for partial dealcoholization of wine using membrane contactor Nazely Diban 1 , Violaine Athes ∗ , Magali Bes 2 , Isabelle Souchon UMR 782 G´ enie et Microbiologie des Proc´ ed´ es Alimentaires, AgroParisTech, INRA, UMR GMPA CBAI, F-78850 Thiverval Grignon, France Received 20 September 2007; received in revised form 3 December 2007; accepted 5 December 2007 Available online 14 December 2007 Abstract In the present work viability of membrane contactors application to partial dealcoholize wines was checked using synthetic wine solutions. A hollow fiber polypropylene (PP) membrane contactor was employed. The process was performed at room temperature and using the most frequent component concentrations present in real wines. The influence of feed and stripping flow rates variation was analyzed. A model considering three resistances in series was developed to predict the ethanol and aroma compounds behavior inside the membrane contactor. Detailed study of the contribution of the individual resistances for ethanol showed that the major contribution to the transport resistance was due to membrane one. The membrane mass transfer coefficient can be calculated using Dusty-gas model expression obtaining a value of K EtOH m = 1.6 × 10 -4 g Pa -1 m -2 s -1 . Flavor losses are higher when ethanol content reduction in feed phase increases. Aroma compound losses can reach almost 100% for the most volatile compounds when residence time of the feed stream is larger. A partial dealcoholization of 2% (v/v) gives as a result acceptable aroma losses that do not damage the final perceived quality of the product. A validation on a real wine was performed with an associated sensorial analysis. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Aroma compounds; Dealcoholization; Evaporative pertraction; Membrane contactors; Wine 1. Introduction Wine is one of the most popular alcoholic drinks in the world. Mediterranean countries have a widespread culture of wine, being France, Italy and Spain the most important producers of this beverage in the world [1]. Quality of wine is a key issue for the wine makers. Great effort is being done in optimizing the production of specific aro- mas and flavors (i.e. cherry, chocolate, vanilla), and minimize the formation of non-desired flavors (i.e. wet dog, plastic, rotten egg) [2]. In this sense, alcoholic content has a strong impact on the quality of the wine affecting acidity, astringency and volatil- ity of aroma compounds [3], altering the organoleptic properties of the product. The degree of ripeness of the grape conferring the optimum flavor characteristic matches normally the highest ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +33 1 30 81 54 86; fax: +33 1 30 81 55 97. E-mail address: vathes@grignon.inra.fr (V. Athes). 1 Current address: University of Cantabria, Department of Chemical Engi- neering, Avda. de los Castros s/n, 39005 Santander, Spain. 2 Current address: UE999 Pech Rouge, INRA, F-11430 Gruissan, France. sugar content, and the resulting alcohol concentration. There- fore, a small adjustment in the alcohol content between 1 and 2% is currently and recently one of the most important objectives for the wine industry. Nowadays, some methods to produce low alcohol-content wines or to adjust the ethanol content are employed by many wine makers in particular in the United States, for instance, spin- ning cone column (SCC) [4,5] and reverse osmosis (RO) [6–8] are among the more utilized in the industry [3,9]. Nevertheless, RO leads to a wine concentration (water and ethanol transfer through the RO membrane) which requires diluting further with water issued from wine itself. Though SCC is performed at mild operation temperatures (26–35 ◦ C), this operation takes place in two steps: a first stage of aroma recovery and a second stage of ethanol removal. After ethanol separation, the aromatic fraction is added back to the wine, what results in a long and expensive operation. Other technologies such as adsorption on zeolites [10] and supercritical fluid extraction [11,12] are being studied in the lit- erature as possible alternatives to reduce the alcoholic content in beverages. Membrane technologies such as vacuum distillation 0376-7388/$ – see front matter © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.memsci.2007.12.004