Energy Efficient Concentration of Clarified Thin Sugar Juice Through Multistage-NF/RO Membrane Technology

In the present work a new multi stage NF/RO process has been developed for concentrating the liquid solutions to higher concentrations that can not be achieved through classical NF/RO processes with moderate operating pressures. In experiments, sugar solutions were concentrated from initial feed concentration of 15 wt% to 50 wt% with moderate trans-membrane pressure of 32 bar. The experiments were performed at 80°C, because thin sugar juice after clarification is typically available at these temperatures. The process is capable to reduce the feed to evaporation section by 70 % by removing about 82 % water from the feed thin sugar ju ice . This has not only reduced the energy consumption of thin sugar juice concentration process but also saved about 70 % of thermal energy needed for thin juice pre-heating. Low energy consumption will have positive effect on CO2 emission .