Evaluation of Different Polymeric Membranes Performances in Microfiltration of Rough Non-Alcoholic Beer

The clarification of rough non-alcoholic beer (RNAB) constitutes a scientific and technical challenges for brewing industry as an alternative to conventional filtration with filter-aid. In this work, an experimental pilot plant has been utilized for evaluating the permeability and selectivity of polymeric membranes in clarification of RNAB. Celulose acetate (CA), celulose nitrate (CN) and PTFE with pore sizes of 0.45, 0.8 and 1.2 μm and nylon (NY) with pore size of 0.65 μm have been used as polymeric membranes in two trans-membrane pressures (TMP) of 1.0 and 2.0 bar. The fluxes of the CA, CN and NY membranes are almost the same at TMP 1.0 bar but they show different behaviour at TMP of 2.0 bar in favour of biger pore sizes. Even though the permeability of CA and CN membranes with pore sizes of 0.45 μm remained almost unchanged at two different TMP, this kind of membranes have the best rejection for haze active proteins and suspended particles. The inferior selectivity of PTFE membranes can be corresponded to its hydrophobicity and less interaction with hydrophilic haze active proteins. The obtained results confirmed that by increasing pore size of CA membranes, separation factor of the sensitive proteins and suspended particles decreases and the membranes permeability increases dramatically.

کلیدواژه ها:

Clarification ، Non-alcoholic beer ، Polymeric Membranes ، Pore size ، Trans-membrane pressure