Augmenting pomelo juice quality through membrane-based clarification and bioactive compounds recovery
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Date
2024
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Publisher
Taylors and Francis
Abstract
The presence of impurities, microorganisms, enzymes, suspended solids, and impurities in
unclarified pomelo juice negatively affected the quality and shelf-life of the product in the
food industry. The objective of this study focuses on the clarification of fresh pomelo juice
using an ultrafiltration (UF) process. The study examined the influence of the operating
pressure (OP) on the various quality attributes of pomelo juice, such as pH, total soluble solids
(TSS), turbidity, color, total phenolic content (TPC), ascorbic acid content (AAC) and fouling
mechanisms and permeate flux (J) behavior. To perform the clarification of pomelo
juice, a 100 kDa membrane (polymeric) was used in a dead-end system, and the process
was carried out in batch mode at OP values of 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5 and 3.0 bar. The findings
revealed that increasing OP led to higher flux during ultrafiltration with limiting pressure
(Plim). The limiting pressure (Plim) was anticipated to be beyond 3.0 bar due to the enzymatic
pretreatment. The primary fouling mechanism during the clarification process was total pore
blocking. After filtration, the resulting juice showed a significant reduction in turbidity of
over 97%, while TSS was lowered by 7–17% compared to fresh juice. The pomelo juice was
efficiently clarified while the pH remained stable at �3.8. The clarified juice showed a minor
decline of 10.1–13.9% in TPC and a 10.8–16.7% reduction in AAC compared to the fresh
unclarified juice. In conclusion, a pressure of 3.0 bar is recommended for conducting the
ultrafiltration process in order to attain desirable flux behavior and optimum properties of
the juice.