Dealcoholization of Red Wine Using Osmotic Distillation

Climate change has caused the percent of alcohol by volume (%ABV) of wine to increase by 2% globally which has resulted in undesirable flavor changes in wines. Production of a low alcohol wine would help to control the quality of wine and give more options to consumers. In response to these issues, the demand of no- and low- alcohol drinks have been growing over the last few years. This project focuses on the dealcoholization of wine while attempting to retain the visual, aromatic, and flavor characteristics. Ethanol is removed from red wine using osmotic distillation. This method was chosen as it was found through research to be the most cost effective choice and best at retaining the sensory characteristics of wine. In this process, feed wine and stripping distilled water are run in counter-current flow over a hydrophobic polypropylene membrane. Ethanol moves from the wine into the stripping water, resulting in a reduced alcohol wine.