Membrane technologies for the fractionation of compounds recovered from cereal processing by-products

Cereal by-products represent serious economic and environmental challenges but at the same time they contain extensive amounts of potentially reusable materials and energy. The development of innovative technologies able to solve microbiological, technological and economic challenges is a key target for a full-scale valorization of cereal by-products. Membrane technology is a widely adopted technology for the separation, fractionation, purification and concentration of various industrial streams, while membrane processes are often recognized as best available technologies in the industry. This chapter focuses on ongoing development works using membrane-based technologies for the recovery of bioactive compounds from cereal by-products. At first, an outlook on general principles and properties of membrane operations is provided, prior discussing the separation of functional macro- and micro-molecules in food waste recovery applications. Finally, target applications in the treatment of oat, rice, wheat and corn by-products are analysed and discussed, highlighting their technological advances and improvements over conventional methodologies.