Cynthia Alcántara, R&D Director at KEPLER, Ingeniería y Ecogestión – a company specializing in engineering and sustainable management of industrial processes – explains how the wine industry generates three main types of residues: lees, grape skins, and stalks.
Lees, when stored under aerobic conditions, undergo a natural fermentation that makes them easily digestible in anaerobic digesters.
Grape skins, on the other hand, need to be protected from fungi and degradation, by covering or insulating them.
Defining storage conditions from the early stages of the project and analyzing the residues allows for optimized energy recovery and facilitates the logistics and operational management of the plant.