Study on the in Situ Enzymatic Self-Cleansing of Microfiltration Membrane for Valorization of Olive Mill Wastewater

In this study intensified removal of pectins was integrated with microfiltration step to develop in situ self-cleansing biocatalytically active membranes. This method was developed to reduce the severe fouling that occurred during microfiltration (MF) of olive mill wastewater (OMWW) for the recovery of bioactive compounds using integrated membrane processes. As a proof-of-concept, pectinase has been immobilized on the MF membrane surface and flux performances as a function of time has been monitored and compared with inert membrane. For the experiments real OMWW has been used. The steady-state flux through the enzyme immobilized on the membrane surface solo was 50% higher than inert membrane. The mechanism for the better performance of the biocatalytically active on the surface has been explained as based on both degradation of deposited pectins (in situ self-cleansing) and overcome of product inhibition as it is continuously removed from the reaction site. The inhibitory effect has been clearly identified from kinetic study of pectinase. For all types of used membrane systems, analysis of cake resistance, membrane resistance, and membrane fouling index indicated surface biofunctionalized membranes with the least fouling tendency and significantly improved flux.