Preparation and characterization of forward osmosis cellulose acetate butyrate/OH- functionalized multiwalled carbon nanotube membrane for the concentration of bitter orange juice

摘要

As an essential process in food industry, fruit dewatering should have the leastimpact on the nutritional values of the product. In this research, bitter orange juicewas concentrated via the forward osmosis (FO) process for the first time. For thispurpose, cellulose acetate butyrate (CAB)/OH-functionalized multiwalled carbonnanotubes (FMWCNTs) membranes were prepared using various nanofiller concentrations.The obtained membranes were characterized in terms of their morphology,porosity, water contact angle, chemical structure, tensile properties, and pure waterflux. During the FO process, NaCl solution was applied as the draw solution (DS), andthe concentration of NaCl was varied (1.2, 2.2, and 4.2 M) to assess its effect on theprocess performance. Increasing FMWCNTs loading in the casting solution up to0.3 wt% boosted the membrane porosity, hydrophilicity, elastic modulus, and purewater flux. The CAB membrane incorporated with 0.3 wt% nanofiller and the DS with4.2 M NaCl concentration represented the highest water flux (29.93 L/m~2h) in theFO experiment and provided the maximum turbidity (1545 NTU) and viscosity(4.64 cP) of the treated feed. According to the obtained results, the developedCAB/FMWCNTs membrane proved promising in the FO concentration of fruit juice.