Potential of removal of color, turbidity, TDS and starch of raw sugar in MEUF process using nonionic surfactant

In this research, the use of Tween 20 nonionic surfactant in MEUF process was investigated in order to observe how should reduce the raw sugar impurities such as turbidity, color, total dissolved solids (TDS) and starch. Also, variations of the permeate flux were studied. The effect of parameters of temperature (in three levels of 30, 40 and 50 ºC), transmembrane pressure (in three levels of 2, 3.5 and 5 bars) and surfactant concentration (in three levels of 0, 1 CMC and 2 CMC) on removal value of the mentioned impurities in raw sugar was investigated by the Response Surface Methodology (RSM). The results showed that the use of Tween 20 surfactant leads to a better removal of color, turbidity and starch in raw sugar in comparison with conventional ultrafiltration process. However, it had not a great success on reducing the TDS. Also the permeate flux was decreased by increasing the surfactant concentration. The operational parameters in this research were effective on the variations of color, turbidity, TDS and starch with appropriate R2.