Abstract
The breakthrough of Microfiltration (MF) technology in the dairy industry came at the end of the 1980s with two developments. The first was new ceramic membrane with a highly permeable support. The second was a unique Uniform Transmembrane Pressure (UTP) system created by a co-current circulation of the MF permeate to the feed. The applications of MF developed since then in the dairy industry are as follows; removal of bacteria and spore from skim milk, whey defatting, and micellar casein enrichment of the cheese milk. In addition, many other applications are being investigated in the research institutes; separation of β-casein, globular milk fat fractionation, and selective separation of bacteria. Recent developments in membrane manufacturing technology allow omitting of the MF recirculation loop, or a decimal reduction of 3.6 or more with no significant reduction in performance efficiency, or both.
In this paper, we briefly introduce the outline of the UTP concept and dairy applications of microfiltration technology at present.
