Preprint Article Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Dealcoholization of Unfiltered and Filtered Lager Beer by Hollow Fiber Polyelectrolyte Multilayer Nanofiltration Membranes – the Effect of Ion Rejection

Version 1 : Received: 8 February 2023 / Approved: 10 February 2023 / Online: 10 February 2023 (07:17:28 CET)

A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.

Bóna, Á.; Varga, Á.; Galambos, I.; Nemestóthy, N. Dealcoholization of Unfiltered and Filtered Lager Beer by Hollow Fiber Polyelectrolyte Multilayer Nanofiltration Membranes—The Effect of Ion Rejection. Membranes 2023, 13, 283. Bóna, Á.; Varga, Á.; Galambos, I.; Nemestóthy, N. Dealcoholization of Unfiltered and Filtered Lager Beer by Hollow Fiber Polyelectrolyte Multilayer Nanofiltration Membranes—The Effect of Ion Rejection. Membranes 2023, 13, 283.

Abstract

Membrane-based beverage dealcoholization is a successful process for producing low- and non-alcoholic beer and represents a fast-growing industry. Polyamide NF and RO membranes are commonly applied for this process. Polyelectrolyte multilayer (PEM) NF membranes are emerging as industrially relevant species and their unique properties (usually hollow fiber geometry, high and tunable selectivity, low fouling) underlines the importance of testing them in the food industry as well. To test PEM NF membranes for beer dealcoholization, at small pilot scale we dealcoholized filtered and unfiltered lager beer with the tightest available commercial polyelectrolyte multilayer NF membrane (NX Filtration dNF40), which has a MWCO=400Da which is quite high for these purposes. Dealcoholization is possible with a reasonable flux (10 LMH) at low pressures (5-8.6 bar) with a real extract loss of 16-18% and an alcohol passage of ~100%. Inorganic salt passage is high (which is typical for PEM NF membranes), which greatly affected beer flavor. During the dealcoholization process, the membrane underwent changes which substantially increased its salt rejection values (MgSO4 passage decreased 4-fold) while permeance loss was minimal (less than 10%). According to our sensory examination, the process yielded an acceptable flavored beer which could be greatly enhanced by the addition of the lost salts and glycerol.

Keywords

beer dealcoholization; nanofiltration; polyelectrolyte multilayer membrane; Layer-by-Layer membrane; membrane-based food processing; membrane modification

Subject

Engineering, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

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