Applications of membrane technology in the food industry

Membrane technology has emerged as a useful tool for separations in the food industry over the last two decades. Ultrafiltration (UF), reverse osmosis (RO) and cross flow microfiltration (CFMF) are already well established technologies in the dairy industry. To a lesser extent the above unit operations are used in tomato juice concentration acid clarification of juices and wine. Other important potential applications concern aroma recovery from fruit juices using pervaporation, treatment of food industry waste effluents such as brine/blanching/osmotic solution using nanofiltration and other unit operations and finally recovery of valuable compounds from food wastes aiming at their transformation to products of medical importance, using bioreactors coupled with unit operations. In addition to the applications, the limiting factors and guidelines for modelling are also given.