Sugar Concentration and Demineralization (Na+, K+) from Plant Juice

Juice extraction from natural plants is an ever-growing industry that is rapidly gaining popularity. The natural sugars obtained from plant juices are more easily absorbed by the human body, which drives sugar refineries to put more of an effort to establish cost-effective means of purification and concentration of the sugars.

Membrane filtration has become an attractive alternative, since the technology requires less energy and has minimum impact on the environment. It was found that after colloids, gums, proteins, starches, and color impurities were removed by microfiltration or ultrafiltration processes, the permeate could be sent directly to nanofiltration spiral-wound elements to concentrate sugar and desalinate the permeate if needed. To refine sugar from sugar beets or sugarcane, a good membrane is supposed to have a high rejection for sugars and low rejection for melassigeniccations such as sodium and potassium, which are the components responsible for sugar losses in molasses.