Semi-industrial high-temperature ceramic membrane clarification during starch hydrolysis

Semi-industrial ceramic microfiltration (MF) membrane has been developed for clarifying maltodextrin solution resulted from cassava starch hydrolysis. In the laboratory test, the influence of transmembrane pressures (TMP 1, 1.5, and 2 bar) on permeate flux and degree of clarification were studied. At lower TMP (1 and 1.5 bar), the J(s), of the ceramic membrane was approximately 12 L.m(-2).h(-1), while it was doubled at TMP 2 bar. The degree of clarification was improved by the change of TMP from 1 to 1.5 bar and then decreased by increasing the TMP to 2 bar. In the semi-industrial scale experiment, the influence of volume concentration ratio (VCR) on the degree of clarification was investigated. The degree of clarification values was decreased from 85% to 65% by the increase of VCR from 1 to 50. In economic point of view, the plant capacity of 1.0 m(3) h(-1) (7000 m(3) year(-1)) was reasonably feasible with the production cost of maltodextrin of 1.73 US$ m(-3). The MF membrane process offered annual cost savings of US$ 292,549 per year in comparison to RVPF process with pay pack period of 2.62 month and IRR at 6111 month of 31.6%.