Membrane fouling mechanisms and permeate flux decline model in soy sauce microfiltration

Abstract

Microfiltration (MF) is a promising technology in soy sauce clarification. However, serious membrane fouling always lead to high operation costs, which restrict the application of the microfiltration technology. In this study, a spiral wound polyvinylidene fluoride membrane was used to explore the influences of processing conditions on membrane fouling mechanisms under total recycle mode in pilot scale. Results showed that the permeate soy sauce nearly preserved the whole nutrition and flavor substances, and the turbidity values remained below 2 NTU during 6 months' room temperature storage. Cake layer and concentration polarization resistance dominated the fouling resistances, which were influenced by operating conditions significantly. A semi‐empirical mathematical model was further proposed to quantitatively describe these influences. The predicted values of the model were consistent with the experimental data with a deviation about 10%. This is helpful for the application of membrane technology in soy sauce clarification process. Practical applications Microfiltration provides soy sauce products with superior clarity. Meanwhile, it keeps most of the flavor and nutrition substances. The aim of this study is to clarify the membrane fouling mechanisms and reducing the membrane fouling in soy sauce clarification. The fouling resistance was analyzed to investigate the influences on membrane fouling under different operating parameters. The novel proposed mathematical model could be used to predict the permeate flux and describe the filtration status under different operating parameters. This study provides a theoretical basis in reducing the membrane fouling for process optimization in soy sauce microfiltration clarification. Moreover, it helps to improve the product quality and production efficiency in soy sauce microfiltration industrial application.

Microfiltration of raw soy sauce: membrane fouling mechanisms and characterization of physicochemical, aroma and shelf-life properties

“…Before packaging, it may be necessary to additionally clarify the soy sauce by centrifugation, sedimentation or microltration. 5 Among these processes, microltration is considered a promising technology for soy sauce production; not only it can provide products with superior clarity while keeping most of the avor and nutrition substances, but it is also able to remove the microorganisms to stop the fermentation and stabilize the soy sauce. 6 Therefore, microltration has already been studied as an alternative to heat treatments and is proposed as a process for simultaneous sterilization/renement for food production.…”

“…Furukawa et al 10 modeled the microltration of soy sauce by a polysulfone membrane and developed an analytical method to help to select appropriate operating conditions for many cross-ow systems with both ultraltration and microltration membranes. Sun et al 5 used a spiral wound polyvinylidene uoride membrane to explore the inuences of processing conditions on membrane fouling mechanisms under total recycle mode in the pilot scale of soy sauce microltration.…”

Microfiltration: A novel technology for removal of trub from hopped wort

“…These values are quite low, because of fouling mechanism. High fouling resistance always leads to high operation costs, which restrict the application of the microfiltration technology (Sun et al, ).…”

Microbiological stability and general sensory acceptance of microfiltered skim milk with agave fructans of a high degree of polymerization added

“…Microfiltration with ceramic membranes (of mineral nature made of aluminum oxide, zirconium oxide, titanium oxide, or silicon carbide) has been tested as a successful technology for the reduction of bacterial count and spores in milk by the industry (Head & Bird, 2013b). However, the main problem with this technology is membrane clogging, provoked by adsorption and deposition of particles in and on the active filtration surface of the membrane (Fysun, Kern, Wilke, & Langowski, 2019; Sun et al, 2018). Membrane clogging has always been a subject of study, and recently new membrane structures and designs that incorporate a thickness gradient on the active filtration surface are tested in the filtration systems.…”