Mass transfer limitations during ultrafiltration of cheese whey with inorganic membranes

Abstract We studied the phenomena limiting the mass transfer of solvent and of solutes during ultrafiltration of sweet whey. The experimental variation in time of permeation rates and of rejection of soluble proteins are analyzed with various models, taking concentration polarization, adsorption, gelation or material deposition into account. Three steps were found to explain the flux decline: (1) the build up of a polarization layer, (2) membrane fouling by adsorption, (3) membrane fouling by material deposition. Furthermore, the rejection of proteins was found to depend on the kind of fouling and on the operating conditions.

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