Membrane technologies for water treatment and reuse in food and beverage industries

The industrial transformation of food and beverages requires a huge quantity of water generating highly polluted wastewaters. In this Chapter, an overview of membrane-based processes for the water reuse and the environmental control in the treatment of wastewaters from food processing industries is given. Applications involving the use of pressure-driven membrane operations, electrodialysis (ED), membrane bioreactors (MBRs) as well as integrated membrane systems are analyzed and discussed. Typical applications for the treatment of process waters coming from fruit and vegetables, dairy, fish, meat, soya and wine industries are illustrated highlighting advantages and drawbacks over conventional technologies.