Purification of Sucrose in Sugar Beet Molasses by Utilizing Ceramic Nanofiltration and Ultrafiltration Membranes - PubMed (original) (raw)
Purification of Sucrose in Sugar Beet Molasses by Utilizing Ceramic Nanofiltration and Ultrafiltration Membranes
Mikael Sjölin et al. Membranes (Basel). 2019.
Abstract
Molasses is a sugar mill by-product with low value that today is used primarily for animal feed. However, molasses contains large amounts of sucrose which, if purified, could be used for other purposes. In this study, purification by membrane filtration using ceramic tubular ultrafiltration (UF) and nanofiltration (NF) was examined. NF purifies sucrose by removing small compounds, whereas UF removes larger compounds. Based on our results, high filtration fluxes could be obtained, and it was possible to clean the membranes sufficiently from fouling compounds. Sucrose was separated from other compounds, but the separation efficiency was generally higher with diluted molasses compared with concentrated molasses. This could be explained by more severe fouling when filtering dilute molasses or potentially due to aggregate formations in the molasses as our analysis showed. Overall, this study shows the potential of ceramic UF and NF membranes for sucrose purification from molasses.
Keywords: ceramic membrane; membrane fouling and cleaning; molasses; nanofiltration; purification; sucrose; sugar beet; ultrafiltration.
Conflict of interest statement
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Figures
Figure 1
Schematic picture of the experiments performed.
Figure 2
Experimental setup of the nanofiltration (NF) trials.
Figure 3
Composition of sugar beet molasses, based on total solids (TS) percentage.
Figure 4
Varying flux in NF experiments at several different pressures and crossflow velocities (CFVs), for both the high-concentration molasses (HCM) and the low-concentration molasses (LCM).
Figure 5
Retention of (a) sucrose, (b) TS, (c) conductivity, (d) total nitrogen (TN), (e) lactic acid, and (f) acetic acid during the NF experiments.
Figure 6
Flux variations at different setpoints of pressures and CFVs in the UF experiment for HCM and LCM.
Figure 7
Separation efficiency results in the UF experiment, shown as: (a) TS retention, (b) retention of TN, and (c) retention in ultraviolet (UV) absorption.
Figure 7
Separation efficiency results in the UF experiment, shown as: (a) TS retention, (b) retention of TN, and (c) retention in ultraviolet (UV) absorption.
Figure 8
Changes in permeability during the experimental sequence of the NF trials.
Figure 9
Changes in permeability during the experimental sequence in the UF trials.
Figure 10
Average particle size of molasses at various concentrations. Samples that were passed through 0.2 µm filters and unfiltered samples were measured at 60 °C and 25 °C.
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