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Ultrafiltration and its Application in Food Processing

Technical Report · October 2015

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.3405.8647

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 Instrumentation involved in Quality Assurance of Milk and Milk Products

Ultrafiltration and Its Applications in Food Processing

G. S. Meena, S. G. Borad, P. T. Parmar, A.K. Singh and Sumit Arora
Dairy Technology Division, NDRI- Karnal

Introduction

In separation process, different substances of a solution are separated out into their individual
forms. Single or multiple principals are used to separate a target molecule. A complete family of
these processes are available in which, membrane filtration is mainly used for molecular
separation (Table 1).

Table 1 Family of separation processes (Source: adapted from Nielsen, 2000).

mechanisms. It can be thick or thin, homogeneous or heterogeneous; symmetric, asymmetric or

composite, dense or porous; neutral or charged; natural or synthetic; synthetic can be of organic
and inorganic.Molecules transport through these membranes can be active or passive which may
be driven by the difference in temperature, pressure and concentration (Nielsen, 2000). Different
generations of membrane materials are existing currently, which delivers the improved separation
capability and resistance towards operational parameters. Further, these membrane materials can
be fixed into different membrane modul
viz., Plate & frame, Spiral wound, Hollow
fiber and Tubular to accomplish the desired separation task. Each membrane module can be used
in more than one membrane process(RO, NF, UF and MF) i.e. single module can be used for one
or more processes but has its own advantages and disadvantages. Typical characteristics are
given in Table 2. During last decades, various membrane processes have not only satisfied the

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basic needs of process intensification but also achieved vital innovations in both production
methods and products. These processes have several inbuilt vital characteristics like
effectiveness, easiness, compactness, cleanliness, lower energy consumption, flexible production
capacity, better selectivity of the desired molecules, compatibility with other membrane oriented
and conventional processes, integrity, ever increasing stability towards pH, pressure temperature
and environmental factors makes them highly suitable for multi-purpose applications in an array
of industries (Drioliet al., 2004
classical, pressure driven membrane processes namely Microfiltration (MF), Ultrafiltration (UF),
Nanofiltration (NF) and Reverse osmosis (RO). These classical processes are unique in terms of
their capability to separate the target component on the basis of size, shape, molecular weight and
charge. Detailed classification of key membrane processes are represented in Table 3, while size
ranges of membrane filtration processes and common substances shown in Figure 1.

Table 3 Classification of membrane separation processes (source: adapted from Echavarriaet al.,
2011).

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Figure 1. Principles of membrane filtration(Source: adapted from Bylund, 1995).

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Ultrafiltration

dairy and food industries. Pore size of UF membranes (0.001-

greater than NF and RO. The applied pressure during ultrafiltration is between 1-10 bar (Table 3
and Figure 1). The UF process membranes are characterized on the basis of molecular weight cut
off (MWCO) rather than pore size. Several membrane manufactures uses MWCO as a criteria, to
access the membrane separation efficiency. For ultrafiltration, MWCO ranges from 1 200 kDa.
Generally for a given molecular weight cut-off, 80% of the molecules of that molecular weight
will be rejected, i.e. retained (Smith, 2013).The UF is well known as protein concentration and
fractionation process. During ultrafiltration, only water, lactose/sugars, minerals and vitamins
moves in permeate, but fat, bacteria and proteins are retained as well as concentrated in retentate.
Gel formation over the membrane surface, concentration polarization and membrane fouling are
the main limiting factors during ultrafiltration. Ultrafiltration can be performed in all membrane
modules or configurations.

Ultrafiltration in Food Processing

Availability of few food materials in naturally pure form underlines the importance of different
separation and purification processes in transforming food or food substances into safe and direct
consumable form. For selected applications, membrane processing is superior to other
conventional methods owing to its inherent advances such as low energy consumption, fewer and
mild processing steps, greater separation efficiency, improved final product quality, eco-friendly
h highest environment
protection through minimum/low waste generation. Now a days, these processes have become an
integral part of industries like functional food and nutraceuticals industry, agricultural, dairy and
food and bio-product industries (Strathmann, 1990).Application of these membrane are
increasing in different industries, with rapid a pace. Recently, Akin et al., (2012), summarized
commercial applications in their review. In dairy industry, ultrafiltration is used for protein
content standardization in cheese milk, high protein milk and fermented products like curd/dahi,
yoghurt, chakka and shrikhand, koumiss. During cheese making, UF is used in protein content
adjustment, production of soft varieties of cheeses like Cream, Quark and Ricotta. Ultrafiltration
has enabled the dairy industry to convert its whey, which is produced in huge quantities, into a
series of value added products.

Application in dairy Industry

In whey processing, UF is being employed for concentration, fractionation, defatting and

demineralization to produce whey protein concentrate (WPC), whey protein Isolate (WPI),
different whey protein fractions individually, in particularimmunoglobulins and growth factors.
UF is the only process used for the concentration of total milk proteins in skim milk for the
production of milk protein concentrate (MPC) and milk protein isolates (MPI). It is also used to
adjust the protein content of milk that acts as a raw material for the manufacture of different
Cheeses and high protein milk.

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Membrane application in Beer, wine and vinegar production

Reverse osmosis is used for the must correction, rejuvenation and dealcoholization of wine,
while MF/UF is used for the wine clarification during wine manufacture (for details see
Lipinzki, 2010). During wine clarification, MF and UF provides an alternative to the classical
fining substances, filters and also reduces the number of processing steps. Lipinzki, (2010),
reported that 0.20- - during
the filtration of white and red wines, respectively. Clarification of vinegar employing UF not
only provides wider vinegar range with same sensorial attributes without turbidity, but also
reduces number of operations and reduces storage time.

Membrane Application in Fruit Juice and Beverages Production

MF and UF are the economic and efficient alternatives to the classical filtration methods
available for clarification of different fruit juices. The use of membrane processing in beverage
industry have several inherent advantages like improved product quality, reduced cost of
production, better working environment, cleaner production with less waste generation and
improved product safety (Koseoglu et al., 1990; Hagg, 1998). Cassano, (2010) reported several
merits of membrane processes over classical beverages or fruit juice fining agents such as
reduced energy consumption and cost, eradication of different filtration aids, mild thermal
treatments that safeguard the product against thermal degradation, easier process and compact
equipment design, fewer wastes, reduced chemicals requirement and enhanced productivity (96
98%, juice recovery). Moreover, fruit juice clarification with MF and UF have substantial
potential of cost saving. Annual production costs of a UF plant (capacity- 250 m3 of juice/day)
was estimated 79% lesser than a conventional plant (Mondor and Brodeur, 2002). UF process is
the alternate of the fining step used in classical method. A detailed review on membrane
processing of fruit juices and beverages has been published by Girard and Fukumoto, (2000).MF,
also known as cold-sterilization process, can also be employed to extend the shelf life of heat
sensitive fruit preparations and beverages.

Membrane Applications in Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals

Global market of functional foods and nutraceuticals is rising rapidly. The future of recently
evolved bio-active molecules and nutraceutical ingredients is usually decided by the separation
ability and efficiency with the retention of the desired characteristics/biological activity of these
ingredients by the employed separation process with minimum inputs (i.e. energy + capital +
labor cost). Separation as well as purification of such ingredients is highly expensive. Although,
a number of challenges have to be overcome in order to concentrate a target substance in the end
product from its raw material, yet several methods are accomplishing such tasks successfully. On
commercial scale, membrane processing is now considered as low cost and effective tool to
concentrate and purify several bioactive substances from different feed streams (Akin et al.,
2012). Various membrane processes alone or in combination are used to produce numerous
nutraceuticals and bioactive substances from lipids, carbohydrates and proteins protein based
sources. Moreover, this technology offers many key advantages during processing of such
ingredients which includes elimination of classical evaporation (that reduces their activity and
highly energy consuming); reduces overall water needs by re-utilizing waste water; enhances

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profit by formation of new products and needs lesser floor space and investments. Table 4,
represents the various application of membrane processing in different classical processes and in
separation of bio-actives while various industrial applications with ultrafiltration process is
shown in Table 5.

Table 4 Established markets and applications in nutraceutical and bioactive separation industries
(Adopted from Akin et al., 2012)

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Table 5. Selected Industrial Applications of Membrane Processes (Source: adapted and

modified from Wenten, 2002)

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