Analysis of fouling and juice quality in crossflow ultrafiltration of watermelon juice

Chiranjit Bhattacharjee,Vinod Kumar Saxena,Suman Dutta

doi:10.1590/1678-457x.15217

Chiranjit Bhattacharjee, Vinod Kumar Saxena + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1590/1678-457x.15217

Copy DOI

Abstract

Abstract Raw watermelon juice was clarified in a laboratory scale flat plate ultrafiltration system incorporating polyethersulphone membranes with a molecular weight cut-off of 50 kDa. The experiments have been carried out over a wide range of trans-membrane pressures (1-3 bar). The effect of ultrafiltration with molecular weight cut-off (MWCO) of 50 kDa PES membrane on permeate properties is reported. The effects of trans-membrane pressure (TMP) on permeate flux and resistances were studied. The flux decay was analyzed through the resistance in series model which showed increase of both reversible and irreversible resistance with trans-membrane pressure, The TSS content of the permeate was found to be almost the same with feed while the ascorbic acid content in the permeate was on the lower side as compared to in feed.

Highlights

During the last two decades, researchers have broadly studied fruit and vegetable juice clarification using ultrafiltration
Steady-state, crossflow UF was used for clarification of watermelon juice
The ultrafiltration was performed in a pressure range of 1-3 bar

Summary

Introduction

During the last two decades, researchers have broadly studied fruit and vegetable juice clarification using ultrafiltration. UF is capable of retaining macromolecules such as proteins, tannins, and polyphenols in the retentate while micro solutes, for example sugars, vitamins, organic acids, aroma compounds, pigments and salts permeate through the membrane along with water Since it is a low temperature operation, chances of microbial activity damaging the permeate is very minimal compared to thermal evaporation techniques. The retentate or concentrate part produced by UF is made up of fibers and suspended solids and the permeate is mainly water plus essential micro molecules which is free of nonessential microorganisms It has many advantages over traditional thermal techniques, some of them are low operating temperature, low energy requirement, minimizing associated costs, no use of fining agents and additives, better product quality, low amount of waste generated, single step continuous process, less process completion time, simpler process design, less manpower requirement, increased juice yield, simple cleaning methods and maintenance of the equipment (Girard et al, 2000). The most widely used membrane modules for the clarification/concentration of fruit juices are tubular (Vladisavljevic et al, 2003), hollow fibre (Tasselli et al, 2007), plate-and-frame (Mirsaeedghazi et al, 2007) and flat plate (Bhattacharjee et al, 2017) membrane modules

Methods

Results

Conclusion