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Review
. 2021 Nov 11;10(11):2768.
doi: 10.3390/foods10112768.

Use of Membrane Technologies in Dairy Industry: An Overview

Mònica Reig  1   2 , Xanel Vecino  1   2 , José Luis Cortina  1   2   3
Affiliations
Review

Use of Membrane Technologies in Dairy Industry: An Overview

Mònica Reig et al. Foods. .

Abstract

The use of treatments of segregated process streams as a water source, as well as technical fluid reuse as a source of value-added recovery products, is an emerging direction of resource recovery in several applications. Apart from the desired final product obtained in agro-food industries, one of the challenges is the recovery or separation of intermediate and/or secondary metabolites with high-added-value compounds (e.g., whey protein). In this way, processes based on membranes, such as microfiltration (MF), ultrafiltration (UF), nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO), could be integrated to treat these agro-industrial streams, such as milk and cheese whey. Therefore, the industrial application of membrane technologies in some processing stages could be a solution, replacing traditional processes or adding them into existing treatments. Therefore, greater efficiency, yield enhancement, energy or capital expenditure reduction or even an increase in sustainability by producing less waste, as well as by-product recovery and valorization opportunities, could be possible, in line with industrial symbiosis and circular economy principles. The maturity of membrane technologies in the dairy industry was analyzed for the possible integration options of membrane processes in their filtration treatment. The reported studies and developments showed a wide window of possible applications for membrane technologies in dairy industry treatments. Therefore, the integration of membrane processes into traditional processing schemes is presented in this work. Overall, it could be highlighted that membrane providers and agro-industries will continue with a gradual implementation of membrane technology integration in the production processes, referring to the progress reported on both the scientific literature and industrial solutions commercialized.

Keywords: microfiltration; nanofiltration; resource recovery; reverse osmosis; ultrafiltration.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(a) Number of publications regarding “dairy” and “membrane” per year; (b) number of publications (from 1980 to 2021) regarding “dairy” and “membrane” per country; and (c) number of publications regarding “dairy” and “UF or MF or NF or RO or diafiltration” per year, from the Scopus database [40].
Figure 2
Figure 2
Traditional process schemes for (a) milk and (b) cheese production.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Process scheme for milk treatment and production of by-products with specific nutritional purposes (e.g., whey and milk protein), where MF is used for fat separation (adapted from [32]).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Process description for extended shelf life milk production (adapted from [32]).
Figure 5
Figure 5
WPC and WPI production from cheesemaking by integration of UF and MF (adapted from [32]).
Figure 6
Figure 6
Whey fat reduction and purification by MF and RO membrane integration.
Figure 7
Figure 7
WPC and WPI production by UF and diafiltration from skim whey.
Figure 8
Figure 8
MF of skimmed milk to obtain NCPP and UF with diafiltration to obtain WPC and WPI from MF permeate.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Membrane fractionation of whey protein to obtain β-Lactoglobulin and α-Lactalbumin by integration of MF and UF technologies.
Figure 10
Figure 10
Demineralization of a high-lactose-content stream by integration of UF and MF.
Figure 11
Figure 11
Membrane integration in dairy industries for milk and cheese production.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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