Selective sample enrichment using pervaporation for monitoring the muscatel aroma production with an electronic nose

This work investigates the feasibility of using an electronic aroma sensing technique, the so-called "electronic nose", to monitor the evolution of a muscatel aroma profile during the wine-must fermentation. Because during the fermentation ethanol is produced in high quantities relatively to the aroma compounds, the electronic nose monitors mainly the evolution of the ethanol concentration, not perceiving the subtle variations of the aroma profile. This work introduces a membrane separation process - organophilic pervaporation - as a selective pre-enrichment step for the monitoring of the muscatel aroma production with an electronic nose.