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Toward the reduction of water consumption in the vegetable-processing industry through membrane technology: case study of a carrot-processing plant

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Abstract

The food industry consumes large amounts of clean, potable water and in turn generates a significant amount of wastewater. In order to minimize water consumption, membrane technologies represent a suitable solution for the treatment of wastewater before it is recycled as process water. Many studies have shown the effectiveness of this technology in the dairy industry, but there are few studies in the fruit- and vegetable-processing sectors. A recently developed methodology for the reduction of water consumption was tested here. Compounds to be eliminated were identified through chemical analysis of several wastewater samples from a carrot-peeling process. Drinking-water quality was selected as our target. Total suspended solids (TSS), fructose, glucose and sucrose were identified as key parameters. Salts (particularly Ca2+ and Mg2+), pH and carbonate hardness (CH) were identified as indicators for evaluating the risk of scaling and corrosion. Based on these results, sieving followed by a 0.5-μm microfiltration (MF) was chosen as the process for pre-treatment. Four nanofiltration (NF) membranes (NFW from SYNDER, DK from GE, NF270 from DOW and SR3D from KOCH) and three reverse osmosis (RO) membranes (ESPA4 from Nitto Group Company, BW30 from DOW and HRX from KOCH) were then tested for the capacity to minimize chemical oxygen demand (COD) and to principally remove sugars. These membranes were then evaluated in terms of permeability and rejection rates. High-quality water could be obtained with RO membranes at low pressure (up to 15 bar) while limiting fouling risks. Rejection rates up to 98.3, 98.0, 99.2, 99.2 and 99.4% for conductivity, COD, fructose, glucose and sucrose, respectively, were achieved. These results are very encouraging for future reuse in vegetable processing before the blanching step, after an additional disinfection treatment.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the French National Agency for Research (ANR) through the MINIMEAU Project (ANR-17-CE10-0015). The authors wish to thank Mélanie Biland and Saïda Maaref for their valuable contributions to this work. The CTCPA (Paris, France) is acknowledged for sharing its expertise in vegetable industries and for providing the industrial partner for the effluent supply.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Université Paris-Saclay, INRAE, AgroParisTech, UMR SayFood, 91300, Massy, France

    Céline Garnier, Wafa Guiga, Marie-Laure Lameloise, Laure Degrand & Claire Fargues

  2. Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, 75003, Paris, France

    Wafa Guiga & Laure Degrand

  3. AgroParisTech, 1 avenue des Olympiades, 91744, Massy Cedex, France

    Claire Fargues

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  1. Céline Garnier
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  2. Wafa Guiga
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  3. Marie-Laure Lameloise
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  4. Laure Degrand
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  5. Claire Fargues
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Correspondence to Claire Fargues.

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Garnier, C., Guiga, W., Lameloise, ML. et al. Toward the reduction of water consumption in the vegetable-processing industry through membrane technology: case study of a carrot-processing plant. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27, 42685–42703 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-10160-0

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