Clarification of Stevia extract by ultrafiltration: Selection criteria of the membrane and effects of operating conditions

Autor: Sirshendu De, G.C. Majumdar, Chandan Sharma, Chhaya, Sourav Mondal
Rok vydání: 2012
Předmět:
Zdroj: Food and Bioproducts Processing. 90:525-532
ISSN: 0960-3085
DOI: 10.1016/j.fbp.2011.10.002
Popis: Clarification of pre-treated Stevia extract using ultrafiltration is presented in this study. Performance of four different ultrafiltration membranes, namely 5, 10, 30 and 100 kDa were investigated in terms of permeate flux and permeate quality, mainly the recovery of Stevioside in the permeate. In this regard, the 30 kDa membrane was found to be most suitable. A systematic set of experiments under steady state were conducted to analyze the effects of the operating conditions, transmembrane pressure drop and stirrer speed on the permeate flux and permeate quality. Steady state was reached in between 8 and 16 min depending on the operating conditions. Steady state was reached earlier at higher stirring speed. A simple resistance in series model was used to quantify the fouling resistance. Membrane resistance was found to be negligible compared to the fouling resistance. It was a strong function of the stirrer speed but remained almost invariant with transmembrane pressure drop. The steady state permeate flux increased with pressure drop as well as the stirrer speed. 45% average recovery of Stevioside was obtained during stirred steady state experiments at lower operating pressures (276 and 414 kPa). At higher operating pressures, recovery of Stevioside in the permeate decreased remarkably.
Databáze: OpenAIRE