Recovery of cleaning agents from Clean-In-Place (CIP) wastewater using nanofiltration (NF) and direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD)

Woo-Ju Kim; Holly Huellemeier; Dennis R Heldman

doi:10.1016/j.foodres.2023.112724

Recovery of cleaning agents from Clean-In-Place (CIP) wastewater using nanofiltration (NF) and direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD)

Food Res Int. 2023 May:167:112724. doi: 10.1016/j.foodres.2023.112724. Epub 2023 Mar 21.

Authors

Woo-Ju Kim¹, Holly Huellemeier², Dennis R Heldman³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Food Science and Technology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, 43210, USA; Department of Food Science and Technology, Seoul National University of Science and Technology, Seoul, 01811, Republic of Korea.
² Department of Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, 43210, USA; Technische Universität Braunschweig, Institut für Chemische und Thermische Verfahrenstechnik, Langer Kamp 7, Braunschweig, 38106, Germany.
³ Department of Food Science and Technology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, 43210, USA; Department of Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, 43210, USA. Electronic address: heldman.20@osu.edu.

PMID: 37087280
DOI: 10.1016/j.foodres.2023.112724

Abstract

Increasing concerns about freshwater sources necessitate the management of wastewater, such as the wastewater generated from Clean-in-Place (CIP) operations. In this investigation, a membrane system composed of nanofiltration (NF) and direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) was proposed to manage model dairy CIP wastewater that contained NaOH as an alkaline cleaning agent. During the NF step, prefiltration by a 4 kDa membrane or a 4 kDa membrane followed by a 200 Da membrane (4 kDa/200 Da) was used to remove the whey protein and lactose. With these two membranes in series of NF, the protein concentration was reduced by 92.4% and the lactose content was reduced to a non-detectable level when compared to the model CIP wastewater. Before concentrating the permeates from NF steps, three DCMD membranes (FR, Solupor, and ST) with different characteristics were evaluated to manage the NF permeates from 4 kDa or 200 Da NF. An increase in the feed temperature from 40 °C to 60 °C resulted in an increase in the water flux during DCMD operation, except for FR. In addition, it was found that ST generated the highest water flux when compared to the other membranes. Using ST and a feed temperature of 60 °C, the permeates from 4 kDa or 4 kDa/200 Da were continuously concentrated for 7 h with DCMD. During this concentration, there was no significant decline in flux. The cleaning effectiveness of the cleaning agent (NaOH) recovered by NF and DCMD was compared with a fresh cleaning solution using quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation (QCM-D). It was found that the cleaning agents recovered by 4 kDa/200 Da NF presented a statistically identical cleaning rate compared to fresh NaOH. This research highlights the potential of NF and DCMD to regenerate alkaline cleaning agents, while reclaiming water from dairy CIP wastewater.

Keywords: Clean-in-Place; Cleaning agents; Direct contact membrane distillation; Nanofiltration; Reclamation of water; Wastewater; Water recovery.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Distillation / methods
Lactose
Membranes, Artificial
Sodium Hydroxide
Wastewater*
Water
Water Purification* / methods

Substances

Wastewater
Lactose
Sodium Hydroxide
Membranes, Artificial
Water