The PROFi membrane filtration system for clarifying beer

摘要

There has been increasing pressure from environmental bodies and regulatory authorities to remove kieselguhr from the filtration process and there have been a number of initiatives to achieve this end. In this article Reiner Gaub, global business manager for brewing at Pall Food & Beverage, demonstrates the feasibility of using membrane filtration—in particular the Pall/GEA Westfalia PROFi process—for bright beer clarification, instead of kieselguhr filtration. Membrane processes have been re placing conventional separation processes since the 1980s. They have been used in the brewing industry for a number of years for beer recovery from tank bottoms, cold sterile filtration and for water purification. Historically, an economically feasible membrane-based solution for mainstream beer filtration has been elusive due to poor fluxes caused by membrane fouling arising from the high particle loading and the formation of a gel layer at membrane interface. The PROFi process—resulting from co-operation between Pall Food and Beverage and GEA Westfalia Separator Food Tech—attempts to minimise fouling by removing the bulk of the particulate matter with a high performance centrifuge before the crossflow membrane process. The requirements on modern filter systems for beer filtration are: retaining beer character and a fresh taste; colloidal and biological beer stability; low product losses; non poluting; high process and operator safety.