Tailor made PVDF membranes for agro-food applications

In this work, microfiltration (MF) hollow-fiber membranes, made of poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF), were prepared by the dry/wet spinning technique. A series of hollow-fibers was produced from the same polymeric dope, in order to investigate the effect of selected spinning parameters, i.e. bore fluid composition and flowrate, on their properties. The produced membranes were then studied for the clarification of orange press liquor and pomegranate juice. In both applications, the study was addressed to maximize the recovery of bioactive compounds in the clarified streams to be processed in further purification steps.