Membrane filtration (RO, NF, UF, MFT)

In the space of almost 30 years, crossflow filtration operations have become essential industrial tools in food technology [1][2] . The main applications for membranes in the food industry have been developed in the dairy sector (30 to 40% of the market), mainly for the concentration of whey proteins and the standardization of milk proteins, far ahead of other food products: wine, beer, fruit juices, egg products, etc. [1][3][4] . Other fields of application are emerging, such as the concentration of vegetable juices and the recovery of blood plasma from slaughterhouses. These techniques are used both within the production chain itself (clarification, concentration, fractionation) and for the treatment of technical fluids (process water, etc.) and effluents.

The aim of this article is to provide food industry technicians, engineers and students with an overview of the food industry applications of the four major membrane processes (microfiltration: MF, ultrafiltration: UF, nanofiltration: NF, reverse osmosis: RO), in which separation across the membrane takes place in the liquid phase, under the action of a pressure gradient known as transmembrane pressure.