TY - JOUR
T1 - Caustic-induced gelation of whey deposits in the alkali cleaning of membranes
AU - Mercadé-Prieto, Ruben
AU - Xiao, Dong Chen
PY - 2005/6/1
Y1 - 2005/6/1
N2 - In the literature, it has been observed that in the cleaning of whey-fouled membranes, the flux recovery can decrease dramatically when using high pH and temperature when the permeate side is kept open. The only hypothesis presented so far states that the in-pore deposits swell in contact with aqueous NaOH, narrowing the membrane pores and hence, reducing the filtration flux. This hypothesis does not explain why the swollen deposits are not dissolved at high pH. In this paper, it is proposed that whey deposits are transformed into gels resulting from contacting NaOH. The gelling process increases significantly the resistance of the deposits to alkali. The kinetics of the caustic-induced gelation of whey protein concentrate solutions was found to verify that this gelling process could occur in similar conditions of pH and temperature as those used in the cleaning operations. The formation of a gel layer in a whey solution in contact with an alkaline solution was also investigated.
AB - In the literature, it has been observed that in the cleaning of whey-fouled membranes, the flux recovery can decrease dramatically when using high pH and temperature when the permeate side is kept open. The only hypothesis presented so far states that the in-pore deposits swell in contact with aqueous NaOH, narrowing the membrane pores and hence, reducing the filtration flux. This hypothesis does not explain why the swollen deposits are not dissolved at high pH. In this paper, it is proposed that whey deposits are transformed into gels resulting from contacting NaOH. The gelling process increases significantly the resistance of the deposits to alkali. The kinetics of the caustic-induced gelation of whey protein concentrate solutions was found to verify that this gelling process could occur in similar conditions of pH and temperature as those used in the cleaning operations. The formation of a gel layer in a whey solution in contact with an alkaline solution was also investigated.
KW - Caustic-induced gelation
KW - Flux decrease
KW - Membrane cleaning
KW - NaOH
KW - Whey deposits
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=18844450965&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.memsci.2004.12.038
DO - 10.1016/j.memsci.2004.12.038
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:18844450965
SN - 0376-7388
VL - 254
SP - 157
EP - 167
JO - Journal of Membrane Science
JF - Journal of Membrane Science
IS - 1-2
ER -