Development of an original lab-scale filtration strategy for the prediction of microfiltration performance: Application to orange juice clarification

Results showed that an anticipation of juice fouling propensities, at pilot-scale, was possible when stirred dead-end filtration test was carried out under the following conditions: ceramic membrane with an average pore size of 0.2 μm, juice fractionation prior to filtration (500 g/1 min) and rotational speed of the blade of 1000 rpm. These conditions, notably the ones related to the particle back-transport and fouling mechanisms, showed that dead-end filtration cell can be used as a process-specific anticipation tool to predict membrane fouling during fruit juices pilot-scale microfiltration.