Quality evaluation of grape juice concentrated by reverse osmosis

The objective of this work was to evaluate the concentration of grape juice by reverse osmosis (RO). Preliminarily, a factorial design was carried out in which the independent variables were transmembrane pressure (40, 50 and 60 bar) and temperature (20, 30 and 40 °C) of the process, and the dependent variables were pH, content of soluble solids, acidity, concentration of phenolic compounds and those of monomeric and total anthocyanins, colour index, colour density, and permeate flux. None of the experiments resulted in significant changes in the juice characteristics. The best process conditions, 60 bar transmembrane pressure and 40 °C, was selected based on the resulting high permeate flux value. Subsequently, a new trial was performed in order to determine whether increasing the temperature from 40 to 50 °C would result in any changes in the juice characteristics. The transmembrane pressure was kept at 60 bar, which was also the maximum value that could be applied by the equipment. Under these conditions, an increase in permeate flux was achieved with no significant difference in the physical or chemical parameters of the product compared to the best condition corresponding to the factorial design. The physical and chemical properties of the concentrated juice increased in proportion to the volumetric concentration factor, indicating the technical feasibility of reverse osmosis for pre-concentrating grape juice.