The purification and concentration of orange juice are crucial to remove undesirable materials, such as pectin, which is responsible for juice clouds; or limonene, which is responsible for bitter taste. Membrane-based juice clarification is preferred due to its capability to separate specific targeted molecules, while still maintaining the clarified juice’s nutritional content. In this study, a novel designed bench-scale plate-and-frame membrane module composed of low fouling cellulose acetate membrane sheets was manufactured to facilitate orange juice clarification. The experimental results demonstrated the effectiveness of the developed module to be used for juice clarification. After incorporating the functional and structural design parameters, the final module had the following specifications: dimensions of 125 × 168 mm, an effective volume of 0.9–9.4 L, a total active membrane area of 1088 cm², and a transmembrane pressure of 0.3–0.55 MPa. The results of the juice clarification show no difference in the value of pH, viscosity, total acid, water content, color L* (brightness), and color a* (reddish) of the feed, the permeate, and the retentate streams. The clarified juice had slightly higher total dissolved solids (°Brix), ash content, vitamin C, and color (b* yellowish). Overall, our findings demonstrated that the developed plate-and-frame module could effectively be used to clarify orange juice without altering the quality, i.e., reducing the nutritional contents.

Membrane technology provides advantages for separating and purifying food materials, including juice clarification. Ultrafiltration processes for fruit juices aim to remove haze components and maintain the stabilization of the juices. However, the membrane process during the clarification of fruit juices suffers from fouling, which deteriorates the process performance and products. Biofouling usually is found in the applications of the membrane in food processing. In this study, phenolic substances extracted from garlic bulbs are incorporated into a matrix of polymeric membranes to prevent fouling during juice clarification. Hydrophilic cellulose acetate was used as the polymer matrix of the membrane, and dimethylformamide was used as the solvent. The phenolic substances from garlic bulbs were incorporated into polymer solutions with different concentrations of 0%, 1%, 1.25%, and 1.5% w/v. The composite membrane was prepared using the phase inversion method, and the resulting membranes were later characterized. The results show that incorporating those phenolic compounds as the dope solution additive resulted in membranes with higher hydrophilic properties. They also modeled antibacterial properties, as shown by the reduced attachment of Bacillus subtilis of up to 91.5 ± 11.7% and Escherichia coli of up to 94.0 ± 11.9%.