Lactose Recovery Processes from Whey: A Comparative Study Based on Sonocrystallization

摘要

Disposal of whey is a crucial problem for dairy industry because of strict environmental regulations. Hence, managing this waste stream requires implementation of alternative economical disposal methods. At the same time, there is an increasing demand to recover the lactose present in the whey. Presence of lactose in whey is responsible for more than 90% biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) of whey. Recovery of lactose from whey may solve the problem of whey BOD to some extent. The present paper describes different processes; like membrane separations, conventional crystallization, anti-solvent crystallization and anti-solvent sonocrystallization; for the recovery of lactose from whey.