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Pretreatment of aqueous pectin solution by cross‐flow microfiltration: analysis of operational parameters, degree of concentration and pectin losses
Author(s) -
da Silva Vítor R.,
Hamerski Fabiane,
Scheer Agnes P.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
international journal of food science and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.831
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1365-2621
pISSN - 0950-5423
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2621.2012.02965.x
Subject(s) - pectin , chemistry , permeation , chromatography , microfiltration , flux (metallurgy) , aqueous solution , solvent , membrane , extraction (chemistry) , biochemistry , organic chemistry
Summary Obtaining pectin through traditional precipitation processes requires a large amount of organic solvent. A reduction in solvent consumption may be achieved by incorporating a cross‐flow microfiltration step in which the extraction solution is removed and pectin is concentrated. In this study, we used α‐alumina tubular membrane (0.44 μm) in two operation modes: total recycle mode to evaluate the effect of temperature, initial concentration of pectin and transmembrane pressure on the permeate flux and pectin coefficient rejection; and batch mode to evaluate the degree of concentration and loss of pectin. It was observed that pectin coefficient rejection varied from 93.4 ± 0.7% to 97.8 ± 0.3%, and a maximum permeate flux of 238.69 ± 6.48 kg m −2 h −1 with 0.12 MPa at 50 °C and 1.0 g kg −1 . Using the optimum conditions, the flux observed at the end of the process was 32.8% lower than the flux in the total recycle mode, enabling a final concentration of pectin in the retained solution of 61.04 ± 0.87% with an average pectin loss in the permeate stream of 8.18%.