Recovery of Volatile Aroma Molecules from Agro-Food Systems by Means of Pervaporation

Pervaporation (PV) has been known a rapid growth in the last 20 years as a valid membrane process, over other conventional techniques, for the recovery of aroma compounds from agro-food systems. PV is based on the use of non-porous membranes which selectively regulate the transport of target molecules dissolved in a liquid feed mixture. PV is particularly appreciated thanks to its low energy consumption, no addition of chemicals for achieving the separation and preservation of the integrity of the aroma compounds. However, despite the large number of studies carried out, a full exploitation of PV in the aroma recovery industry is still limited. The first section of this chapter will provide an introductive overview on the PV process including the fundamentals, the transport mechanism and the fields of applications. The second part of the chapter will be dedicated on the use of PV in the recovery of aroma compounds from model mixtures and from real systems. A state-of-the-art will be provided including the most recent findings in the recovery of aroma by PV highlighting the principal breakthroughs achieved in this field, the main variables influencing the separation performance of the process and the future perspectives.