Clarification of sour orange juice by ultrafiltration: Optimization of permeate flux and fouling resistances using response surface methodology

The turbidity of sour orange juice after juice extraction affects on quality, shelf-life and concentration ofjuice. Therefore, juice clarification is an important operation in the fruit processing industry. The goal of thisstudy was evaluating the effect of membrane operation parameters including pressure (120-220 kPa) andtemperature (25-35 ºC) on the permeate flux and hydraulic resistance of sour orange juice during membraneclarification. Response surface methodology (RSM) was used to optimizing the operating parameters. Results ofthe experiments showed that the permeate flux was raised with increasing of temperature, but total hydraulicresistance (RT), concentration polarization resistance (Rcp) and gel layer resistance (Rg) was decreased inmentioned condition. The permeate flux, membrane resistance (Rm), RT, Rcp and fouling index was raised withincreasing in pressure. The Rm and fouling index are showed different behavior depending on temperatures level.Results of process optimization indicated that the best conditions to maximize of permeate flux, and to minimizeof fouling index and RT achieved at 35 ºC and 120 kPa for a maximum desirability of 0.761.

کلیدواژه ها:

Sour orange ، Clarification ، Response Surface Methodology ، Ultrafiltration