Concentration of aroma compounds from an industrial solution of soluble coffee by pervaporation process

Pervaporation experiments with PDMS membrane have been performed in a plate and frame module to investigate its ability to concentrate volatile compounds identified in an industrial soluble coffee solution. Eight compounds were chosen to depict key aroma of soluble coffee. The effect of feed flow rate, temperature and permeate pressure on the pervaporation performance has been analyzed. Concentration polarization phenomena was not identified in the feed flow rate studied. The temperature effect showed a good agreement with the nonlinear Arrhenius equation. The permeate pressure followed the solution-diffusion model behavior. Results showed that pervaporation is a promising alternative to concentrate aroma compounds from soluble coffee.