Membrane Separation Process in Wastewater Treatment of Food Industry

Abstract

Wastewater derived from food production is highly variable, depending on the specific types of food processing operations (e.g., fruit, vegetable, oils, dairy, meat, and fish). Advances in membranes technology have showed many advantages for wastewater treatment of food industry. By implementing membranes, the separated substances and clean water are often recoverable in a chemically unchanged form and are therefore easily re-used. Maximum benefits are obtained when one or both the output streams from the membrane system are recycled or re-used, thereby reducing process materials requirement and minimizing waste disposal costs. This chapter reviews the development and applications of membrane processes in wastewater treatment of food industry. Particular focus is given to membrane’s special abilities to wastewater treatment for water regeneration and various re-uses purposes. Influence of engineering aspects is analyzed, specially operating conditions near critical flux to improve processes in wastewater treatment. Detailed discussions are provided with respect to constituents of concern in water reuse applications including recovery of other products with value for food industry.