Rethinking Membrane Processes for Food: From Particle Behavior to Innovative Membrane Cascades

Within the food industry, membrane separation is commonplace due to its relatively low energy consumption. It allows fractionation of various feeds (e.g., milk) into starting materials for food design. We feel that considerable progress can still be made. For this, the specific properties of the components of interest would need to be taken into account, such as their mobility in flow, and their deformability in relation to the actual membrane structure. Furthermore, improvements are possible through cascaded use of membrane processes, and upgrading waste streams, which leads to new opportunities.