Removal of lactate from acid whey using nanofiltration

• High lactate concentrations in acid whey limits utilisation in high value dairy products.
• Nanofiltration can allow separation of lactate from lactose.
• Lactic acid permeation falls at high pH due to increasing dissociation into lactate ions.
• Lactose rejection is high under all conditions.

The utilisation of acid whey by the dairy industry is limited by the high concentrations of lactate in the solution. In the present study, three commercially available nanofiltration membranes: HL, XN45 and DK were used in to evaluate the separation of lactose and lactate as a function of pH. Raw acid whey was used after microfiltration, while two laboratory prepared solutions comprising lactic acid and lactose; and sodium lactate and lactose were also tested for comparison. The rejection of lactic acid was found to increase with the degree of acid dissociation. About 50% of the lactate could be removed at pH ∼3 due to the lower degree of dissociation. For all pH values tested, over 90% of the lactose was retained. The molecular weight cutoff and permeability of the membranes had little influence on the separation performance.