Travel to 8th Specialized Conference on Sustainable Viticulture, Winery Wastes & Agri-industrial Wastewater Management
Abstract
Associate Professor Grbin attended the 8th Specialized Conference on Sustainable Viticulture, Winery Wastes & Agri-industrial Wastewater Management, 12-15 November 2017, Viña del Mar, Chile. Attending this conference gave insight into international trends in sustainability and treatment issues in the wine industry. A variety of topics were addressed, including establishment of regional and national approaches to sustainability via codes of practice, and guidelines for development of sustainable wineries. Alternative approaches to the treatment of winery wastes was presented by several authors. A focus was the use of anaerobic treatment, generating biogas for potential energy production, trickle filter technology and mathematical modelling to improve process control of anaerobic treatment systems.
Summary
Associate Professor Grbin attended the 8th Specialized Conference on Sustainable Viticulture, Winery Wastes & Agri-industrial Wastewater Management, 12-15 November, 2017, Viña del Mar, Chile. This group is a special interest group under the auspices of the International Water Association (IWA). The IWA is the peak water association and has more than 7000 members and works across water challenges throughout the world.
Assoc. Prof Grbin delivered a plenary lecture titled “An overview of the Australian wine industry: insights into history, regions, varieties and wastewater treatment”. This lecture included a study undertaken as part of the Wine Australia project UA1301 ‘Developing a fundamental understanding of the microbiological treatment of winery wastewater’.He also co-authored two other oral presentations given (by Dr Kathryn Eales, Cristobal Onetto) presenting work from Wine Australia projects UA1301 and the PhD project GWR Ph 1316 ‘Improved treatment of winery wastewater through a detailed microbial population analysis’. Cristobal Onetto’s presentation was awarded the best presentation of the conference.
The visit resulted in an invitation to be a session Chair and election to the Scientific Committee for 9th Specialized Conference in 2019, University of Mons, Belgium. He undertook a range of technical visits to vineyards, wineries and research facilities, presented at Viña Concha y Toro Centro de Investigación e Innovación (the Concha y Toro Center for Research and Innovation) in Chile and establishment of various linkages with researchers in Chile and South Africa, and exploration of opportunities for new PhD projects and visiting researchers.