| Summary: | The paper focused on the influence of operative conditions on the separation of benzoic acid from 10 °Brix cranberry juice by cross-flow nanofiltration with a plate and frame pilot scale (DDS Lab Module Type 20 system). Six kinds of commercial nanofiltration membrane were investigated. The results showed that the rejection of benzoic acid was significantly lower than that of other components in cranberry juice, including sugars and other organic acids. In a range of 2–7.5 L/min, feed flow rate slightly affected the performance of nanofiltration. Higher temperatures resulted in higher permeate flux and lower rejection of benzoic acid, whereas rejection of sugar and organic acid was stable at a high value. In a range of 2.5–5.5, pH also significantly affected the separation of benzoic acid and negative rejection against benzoic acid was observed at pH 4.5 with some of the membranes. This implies that pH 4.5 is considered as an optimum pH for benzoic acid separation from cranberry juice. The lower permeate flux caused a lower rejection of benzoic acid and negative rejection of benzoic acid was observed at the low permeate flux. Pretreatment by ultrafiltration with CR61PP membranes could improve the permeate flux but insignificantly influenced the efficiency of separation. The results also indicated that NF99 and DK membranes can be effectively used to separate benzoic acid from cranberry juice.
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