Influence of prefiltration on membrane performance during isolation of lignin-carbohydrate complexes from spent sulfite liquor

In this study, we examined the isolation of lignin-carbohydrate complexes (LCCs) from sodium-based spent sulfite liquor, in conjunction with minimization of membrane fouling. We screened 3 polysulfone (PS) membranes with cutoffs of 100, 50, and 25 kDa, respectively. Flux and retention for the 100- and 50kDa membranes had the same order of magnitude, indicating that these properties were determined by fouling that formed on the membrane not pore size. The PS membrane with the 50-kDa cutoff performed best in terms of flux and retention of lignin-carbohydrate complexes and experienced the least membrane fouling. Two prefiltration methods were used to decrease the fouling of the 50-kDa membrane: a 0.2-pm PS microfiltration membrane and dead-end filtration with 10-um filter cloth and a 4 wt% mixture of kieselguhr (diatomite) and spent sulfite liquor prior to filtration. Prefiltration of the SSL with microfiltration increased the flux 3-fold and decreased the fouling grade from 49% to 7.2%. Dead-end filtration effected a 16% increase in flux and a fouling grade of 17%. The retention of LCC during microfiltration was high, which resulted in a loss of high-molecular-weight products, whereas the loss of LCC during dead-end filtration was negligible. A 50-kDa PS membrane performed best with regard to the recovery of lignin-carbohydrate complexes from spent sulfite liquor. Also, dead-end filtration is a promising method for eliminating membrane fouling. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights, reserved.