Selection of membranes for purification of fructooligosaccharides

Abstract

The aim of this study was to purify fructooligosaccharides (FOS) present in a mixture of sugars, containing also glucose, fructose and sucrose through, nanofiltration membranes. Four membranes were used: NP010 and NP030 (Microdyn Nadir, Germany), Desal−5 DL and Desal−5 HL (GE Water & Process Technologies). Experimental assays were performed in a dead-end cell and tangential cell filtration to select the most appropriate membrane. Then, with the membrane selected performed diafi ltration in tangential cell fi ltration up to a concentration about 80% FOS. In the dead-end filtration cell experiments the NP010, NP030, HL and DL membranes were selected, since they performed the highest retentions of FOS, and lowest retention of glucose. The results showed that NP030 membrane performed the highest differences between the retention of FOS and sucrose, where the retentions of the different saccharides were: fructooligosaccharides (Robs = 0.66), glucose (R obs = 0.18), fructose (R obs = 0.15) and sucrose (R obs = 0.24). The results clearly demonstrate the potential of diafiltration using the NP030 membrane in the purification of FOS from mixtures containing mono and disaccharides.