Studies On The Application Of Reverse Osmosis For Dealcoholization Of Alcohol Beverage

Recently there is a upward trend that alcohol-reduced wine is being accepted by more and more people for the reasons such as more health concern, higher life quality and more disposable income. Alcohol-free beer has already come into marketplace in China and also the competition in the market of low alcohol Chinese rice wine has begun. The high quality alcohol-reduced wine should look like, smell like and taste like the normal ones, but at present there are not ideal process and equipment have been developed to make such wine in China. The aim of this paper was to develop a new type products of alcohol-free beer and another low alcohol Chinese rice wine base on the implementation of reverse osmosis to rule out alcohol from wine.By the production of alcohol-free beer in the laboratory scale experiment, the operation conditions were determined as follows: 0.86-0.90 Mpa, 10-15℃, pre-osmosis (40 min)until the membrane is stable. Through the chemical analysis and sensory evaluation, the decrement of the common substance in alcohol-free beer was less than 12.5%, the flavor substance decreased by 19%-23%, and no substantial difference in the taste and flavor components were observed between the processed and unprocessed beer. This dealcoholic method was proved to be suitable for different kinds of beer.In the medium-scale experiment, the most efficient reverse osmosis membrane was selected, the process of water supplement was optimized, and the operation conditions were determined as follows: 1.7 Mpa, pre-osmosis (15 min) until the membrane is stable. The total amount of volatile substances was found decreased by 26.2% by measuration of involatile flavor substances. The total amount of amino acid was found to decreased by 9.9%, the oligose less than 3%, and the metal ions about 5% by the measuration of involatile flavor substances. The index of total protein, polyphenol and glucan which can reflect the full-bodied characteristic of beer was found to drop under 3.3%. Thus the alcohol-free beer produced by reverse osmosis can retain the flavor and taste of the original beer.A mathematical model describing the decrease of alcohol during reverse osmosis was developed. The modeling error was ranged from 1.9% to 18.4% by measuring the concentration of alcohol at different time in laboratory and medium scale experiment respectively. It showed this model can predict the process of reverse osmosis in producing alcohol-free beer well.The approach of taking advantage of reverse osmosis to get rid of alcohol from normal beer and Chinese rice wine is feasible. The alcohol-reduced wine which has original flavor and taste can be produced by adding reverse osmosis unit to the end of the brewing process without changing the present equipments and processes. With the moderate investment and run cost, the reverse osmosis process is acceptable for the medium-scale wine brewery, therefore have an industrialization prospect.