US 5,480,665 A · Apparatus and method for removing compounds from a solution

Abstract

Method and apparatus for the treatment of fluids, particularly wine, to remove unwanted substances. The wine is treated in a reverse osmosis (R.O.) treatment unit, generating a retentate and a raw permeate. The membrane for the R.O. unit is selected to pass in the permeate the unwanted substances, such as volatile acidity (ethyl acetate and acetic acid). The raw permeate is subjected to a treatment column. In the case of volatile acidity, this is an anion exchange column, which removes the acetic acid from the permeate by anion exchange and removes the ethyl acetate by base hydrolysis. This produces a purified permeate, which is depleted in volatile acidity, but contains other components desirable for the wine. The purified permeate is then recombined with the retentate from the R.O. column, and the result is wine with the volatile acidity and little else removed. This wine may be recirculated through the system to remove yet more of the volatile acidity. Before the anion exchange step, a low-energy distillation may be used to remove CO.sub.2, H.sub.2 S, or other relatively volatile compounds. To remove acetaldehyde, a low-energy distillation column is used instead of the anion exchange column, and the distillation residue constitutes the purified permeate that is recombined with the retentate from the R.O. column. A high-energy distillation column may be used to separate out alcohol and water, and then add either the alcohol or the water back to the R.O. retentate, thus producing either a higher alcohol or a lower alcohol beverage.

Claims25

Dependent claims

An apparatus for removing at least one predetermined component from a solution, including:

means for holding the solution, having a first inlet and a first outlet;
a reverse osmosis unit having a second inlet coupled to said first outlet and further having a second outlet and a third outlet;
means for driving the solution through said reverse osmosis unit for producing a retentate at said second outlet and a raw permeate at said third outlet;
a heat exchanger coupled to said second outlet for controlling the retentate temperature;
a treatment column having a fourth outlet and having a third inlet coupled to said third outlet for conveying the raw permeate therethrough for producing a purified permeate, with at least a portion of the predetermined component removed, at said fourth outlet;
means connected to said fourth outlet and to said heat exchanger for combining the entire purified permeate with the retentate to produce a treated solution.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Apparatus and method for removing compounds from a solution

Life of this patent

Apparatus and method for removing compounds from a solution

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims25