Wine Spinning Cone Column Application Bulletin 1-01-1306

he Spinning Cone Column

T (SCC) is an efficient and versatile

wine-making tool that has
been commercially and successfully
applied in wineries for over 10 years.
Over this period a number of specific
wine-making applications have been
developed, giving the winemaker
unprecedented control over both flavour
and alcohol levels in the final product.
In addition the same technology can
be used to recover flavour from grape
juice, desulphite single strength grape
juice, remove unwanted flavours and to
recover useful flavours and alcohol from
waste streams.

Key benefits of the Spinning Cone

Column technology are:
• Adjustment of alcohol content in SCC 10,000 in a Californian Wine Facility.
full-strength wines without flavour loss
or damage (in fact, flavour impact is of volatile compounds such as aroma low temperature from a portion of the
increased!). and alcohol from a thin-film liquid batch of wine to be treated. Most of
system. The SCC can process thick, the alcohol is then removed from the
• Production of low or reduced viscous slurries containing high levels deflavoured wine in a second stage.
alcohol wines while retaining varietal of suspended solids just as readily as it This alcohol will typically be recovered
wine flavours. can clear liquids without damaging the as a clean spirit at 50 to 60% ABV that,
• High quality spirit is produced as recovered flavour or the treated product. if desired, can be rectified to a higher
a by-product of alcohol removal or strength.
other processes. Further details regarding the operating
principle of the SCC may be found at The removal of alcohol typically results
• Energy efficient desulphiting of www.flavourtech.com in an overall reduction of final strength
grape juice to less than 10ppm total
between 1 and 2% ABV when the
SO2.
treated wine is blended with the
• Recovery of flavour and alcohol Alcohol Adjustment – Full untreated wine from the same batch.
directly from solids-containing Strength Wines All of the flavour is then returned to
streams such as marc or yeast slurry. the wine thus producing a finished
The Spinning Cone Column is widely
• Versatility and flexibility in the wine product with all the original flavour,
used to increase the ratio of flavour
making process. but at a slightly lower alcohol content.
to alcohol in wines that without
Adjustments from 15 to 16% ABV
Spinning Cone Columns have been such adjustment are considered to
down to 13 to 14% ABV produce wines
installed in wineries around the world be excessively “hot”- a condition
associated with alcohol levels that are with more perceived fruity and light
increasing profitability by adding value
too high. The wine is processed in characters and the moderation of the
throughout the wine making process.
two stages; the first stage involves the “heat” associated with high alcohol
recovery of all of the volatile flavour at content.

The Spinning Cone

Column 1 Wine storage

The SCC is a uniquely

2 SCC - flavour strip
efficient counter-current
liquid-gas contacting 1 2 3 SCC - alcohol strip
device, i.e. a distillation
3 4 Blend tank
or stripping column, that
belongs to the same Wine (15.5% alcohol)
family of mass transfer
Wine less flavour (15.0% alcohol)
devices as packed, plate
and bubble-cap columns. Wine at 3.0% alcohol
The SCC is unique in its 4
Wine flavour
use of gentle mechanical
forces to enhance inter- Spirit (62.8% alcohol)
phase contact. This allows Wine (13.7% alcohol)
the rapid, efficient and
cost-effective separation Alcohol reduction using the SCC in a two pass process
Alcohol Adjustment - Reduced at ambient temperature compared to to process streams containing high
Alcohol Wine the alternative of refrigeration. levels of suspended solids enables the
For a variety of reasons, markets for recovery of such volatiles by processing
The potential disadvantage of storing
several categories of reduced alcohol a slurry of skins directly through the
sulphited juice is that before further
wines ranging from 1% to 10% ABV are SCC.
use the sulphur must be removed.
expanding. Underpinning this growth is Conventional stripping columns such as Further, the SCC can be used to recover
the ability to produce products which packed, plate or bubble cap columns high strength alcohol and flavour
retain all of the desired flavour of the
original full strength wine. 1 Juice storage

By varying the conditions used in the

2 SCC
two-stage process described above,
it is possible to produce wines across 1
2 3 Neutralising vessel
a complete final alcohol range that
retain all of the volatile flavour. Careful 4 Fermentation tank
selection of the starting wine and the
SCC operating conditions by the wine High SO2 juice
3
maker combine to ensure that a high
SO2 free juice
quality of finished product, previously
unattainable, can be achieved. SO2 rich condensate
4
Neutral discharge
Flavour Management of Grape
Juice
Just as volatile wine flavour can be Desulphiting Process using SCC
recovered using the SCC at any desired
point once the fermentation has started, have traditionally been used to remove directly from tank bottoms at the end of
it is also possible to recover aroma from the sulphur. However, the heat damage fermentation and fining processes. Such
grape juice prior to fermentation. that occurs to the juice due to the a feed stream contains a high content
residence time profile in such devices of settled yeast, however the ability of
The recovery of grape juice aroma may is highly detrimental to juice quality and the SCC to process high suspended
be considered for a number of reasons. usually imparts burnt or cooked notes to solids feed streams makes it possible
It may be desirable for juice aroma to be the juice. to recover the alcohol from this yeast by
added to the fermenting wine towards processing it directly through the SCC.
the end of the fermentation or after Use of the SCC for desulphiting
This approach eliminates alcohol losses
fermentation is completed in order to avoids this problem as the extremely
associated with wet yeast and also
produce a wine with a particular aroma short residence time within the SCC
reduces the effluent problem associated
profile. minimises thermal degradation. Further,
with spent yeast.
the cleanability of the SCC also prevents
Alternatively, if the production of the undesirable characters being transferred
very best concentrated varietal grape to the juice as a result of inadequate
juice is desired then it is imperative that Models
cleaning as is common in some Two basic models of SCC are available;
the characteristic aroma of the starting conventional desulphiting systems.
juice be recovered efficiently and at the SCC 1,000 and SCC 10,000.
high concentration, while avoiding The SCC can also be used to recover Nominal capacities for typical winery
damaging rectification processes. As aroma from the grape juice prior to applications are given in the table
one example, the SCC is used by a sulphiting. This aroma can be stored below. If capacities greater than that
number of juice processors to produce separately, under optimum conditions, obtainable on the largest single column
very high quality Muscat concentrate and added back to the juice after (SCC 10,000) are required then plants
whereby the Muscat aroma is recovered desulphiting. are constructed with parallel columns
from the juice, without damage, prior to sharing feed, discharge, condensing
concentration of the juice. The aroma and control systems, resulting in higher
that is recovered in a single pass of the Recovery of Alcohol or Flavour capacity plants such as the SCC
juice through the SCC is returned to from Waste 10,000-2 (included in the table below).
the concentrate to produce a finished Throughout the winemaking process a Maximum capacities will depend on the
concentrate with fresh Muscat flavour of number of waste streams are produced specific operating conditions required to
exceptional quality. that can contain useful volatile flavours achieve the desired result.
and/or alcohol. The recovery of Model Nominal Feed Nominal Feed
such flavours or alcohol offers Capacity Capacity
Desulphiting Grape Juice opportunites for use either within Flavour Recovery Alcohol Removal
If fermentation or evaporation capacity the winery or by another party. For Mode (L/hr) Mode (L/hr
is limited for a particular winery or juice example the valuable flavours of
processor such that juice must be certain grape varieties, including SCC 1,000 800 200
stored for a period of time, considerable Muscat, are lost within the SCC 10,000 8,000 2,000
economic savings can be gained by discarded skins after pressing.
SCC 10,000-2 16,000 4,000
storage of sulphited single strength juice The unique ability of the SCC
Flavourtech is an Australian based company The information in this bulletin is the property of
specialising in innovative process technology, Flavourtech Pty. Ltd. ACN 003 812 226 and must not be

flavourtech Processing Excellence

particularly thin film distillation and concentration
systems. Technologies include:
reproduced without written permission.

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