“…The distillation of sugarcane juice and molasses to produce ethanol generates large quantities of vinasse: about 10e14 L per litre of ethanol produced (Júnior et al, 2015;Orteg on et al, 2016). This effluent is characterized by strong brown colour, acidic pH, high turbidity, high content of organic compounds (acids, alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, esters and sugars) that contribute for its chemical oxygen demand (COD) and biochemical oxygen demand (BOD 5 ), and high concentration of ions (K þ , Ca 2þ , Mg 2þ , Fe 3þ , Cl À and SO 4 2À ) (Barrera et al, 2013;Christofoletti et al, 2013;Marinho et al, 2014;Orteg on et al, 2016). As vinasse presents high organic matter and nutrient contents, it has been common practice to use it as fertilizer in sugarcane fields (Júnior et al, 2014;Moraes et al, 2015).…”