Worldwide environment regulatory authorities are becoming more and more stringent in setting norms for discharge of wastewaters from industries. Distillery wastewaters are highly polluted and their pollution potential is one of the most critical environmental issues of today. For these reasons, distillery industries are forced to look for more effective technologies for wastewater treatment. In recent years, membrane processes have been widely used for various applications, especially for wastewater treatment. The usage of membrane technologies is reflected in high removal efficiency, optimal costs and simple handling with devices. This review presents these membrane processes in the sense of their application on distillery wastewater purification.

In the age of rapid degradation of environment, the use of natural coagulants for water and wastewater treatment represents a promising idea which is in line with the global sustainable initiatives. Since these coagulants are of organic nature and have complex composition, it is important to separate components which show coagulation activity from those which do not show. In this work, ultrafiltration membranes with MW cut off of 10,000 Da and 30,000 Da were used for fractionation of natural coagulant extract obtained from common bean seed. Coagulation efficiency of these fractions was assessed by jar tests in model water. Coagulation conditions (pH and applied dose of coagulant) were optimized for each fraction. The fraction of extract with molecular weight lower than 10,000 Da was showed as the best coagulant with coagulation efficiency more than 40% at pH 10 and applied dose 2.5 ml/l.

Lignocellulosic materials have a great potential to be converted into different high value products including biofuels, value-added chemicals, and cheap energy sources for microbial fermentation and enzyme production. Their multifunctionality and ability to reuse contribute to their great importance in terms of environmental protection and sustainable development. Such materials are sugar beet shreds (SBS) which are usually used as animal feed but since they are produced in large amount in sugar industry, they can also be used as an adsorbent or for bioethanol production. Bioethanol production from SBS includes pretreatment processes in order to remove pectic substances and lignin, followed by enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose in order to obtain the solution of fermented sugars. A novelty in this work is the investigation if solid residues from the pretreatment process of SBS for bioethanol production can be used as adsorbents, the same as raw SBS. Textural characteristics and capacities for copper ions adsorption of raw SBS, depectinated SBS, and SBS residues after enzymatic hydrolysis were investigated. The Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface areas of investigated materials are 0.8, 0.6, and 0.9 m²/g, and copper adsorption capacities are 5.6, 4.0, and 4.7 mg/g, respectively. From the results of textural analysis performed by low-temperature nitrogen adsorption and mercury intrusion porosimetry methods, it can be concluded that studied samples are mainly macroporous materials without significant mutual differences. Although both treated SBS, which are generated as waste in bioethanol production process, have slightly lower efficiency of copper adsorption in comparison with raw SBS, they still can be successfully used as adsorbents.

One of the major criteria for monitoring water and wastewater quality is turbidity, which is most often reduced using chemical coagulants and flocculants, such as alum and iron salts and acrylamide. However, due to their detrimental effects, intensive investigations into natural coagulants and flocculants have recently been conducted. These coagulants are biodegradable, derived from renewable sources, and do not pose health risks, making them a sustainable solution for water and wastewater treatment. Coagulation and flocculation using natural coagulants is a complex phenomenon influenced by multiple factors. In this study, the impact of the solvent used to extract the natural coagulant from Phaseolus vulgaris seeds on its coagulation effectiveness was examined, along with the effects of pH, the initial turbidity of the treated water, and the applied coagulant dose. The extract obtained using 0.5 mol/L NaCl demonstrated higher coagulation activity compared to the extract obtained with distilled water. Both extracts exhibited improved performance in water with higher initial turbidity (200 NTU) and at the lowest pH tested (pH 6). Under these conditions, the water extract achieved a maximum coagulation activity of 58.4% at a dose of 0.1 mL/L, while the NaCl extract reached an 83.5% turbidity reduction at a dose of 0.4 mL/L. The dominant coagulants in the NaCl extract of Phaseolus vulgaris seeds are anionic polyelectrolytes. In the presence of divalent cations, these coagulants destabilize negatively charged particles through either the bridging mechanism or the sweep coagulation mechanism.

In this study, hybrid ultrafiltration which involves adsorption onto activated carbon and/or coagulation was tested for the removal of ibuprofen, caffeine and diclofenac from the municipal wastewater treatment plant effluent (c₀ = 2–3 µg/L). Ultrafiltration was tested in combination with powdered activated carbon dose of 5 mg/L separately or with coagulants (FeCl₃, dose 4 mg Fe (III)/L and, natural coagulant isolated from bean seeds, dose 33 µL/L). In addition to the removal of organic micropollutants, the removal of As, Cr, Cu and Zn was also tested (c₀~100 µg/L). The research was conducted on a laboratory pilot plant (capacity 30 L/h, in-out dead-end filtration, flux of 80 L/m²h). The best results were obtained for caffeine when adsorption on PAC is combined with a FeCl₃ (removal efficiency 42–87%). The addition of a natural coagulant did not show benefits for the removal of organic micropollutants compared to the other tested processes, but both coagulants had similar effects on the content of metals and As Hybrid membrane processes proved to be the most efficient for Zn (44–87%) and Cr (33–87%) removal. The lowest efficiency was determined for As (˂19%). Ultrafiltration with PAC and coagulants removed 5–33% of effluent organic matter, depending on the type of coagulant; 57–87% of total nitrogen and PAC/FeCl₃/UF was also partially effective for removing total phosphorus (11–39%).