Department of Biochemical Engineering & Biotechnology

BEL416: Membrane Applications in Bioprocessing

Home Work Sheet # 7

November 17, 2009

Some indicative/possible questions on Applications of Membranes (Not for submission)

1. What are the problems associated with distillation of water for pretreatment? How
membrane based processes for water purification better than conventional method like
distillation, ion exchange etc.

2. What are different steps in textile industry where a large volume of waste liquid stream is
generated? How can membranes play its rightful role? Are they popular? Explain your
answer briefly.

3. Pulp and paper industry is known to produce large liquid waste. How can you reduce this
waste with the help of pressure driven membranes. Explain your answer with some hard
facts as described in the book.

4. Can membranes be used to reduce waste in leather industry? How? Is it advisable to use
RO to remove Chromium ion?

5. What are normally the objectionable components in beet and cane sugar extracts and how
are they removed conventionally?

6. At what stages of Sugar refining can membrane processes be applied? What limits
membrane applications in other stages?

7. Briefly outline membrane processing in manufacture of soy products (full fat soybean
concentrate or soy isolates). List the advantages of using membranes in the process.

8. Explain how membranes can be employed for degumming during vegetable oil
processing.

9. Describe the deacidification of vegetable oil via (a) Ultrafiltraion and (b) Two-phase
system.
 Also give limitations of both the methods.

10. How can dewaxing of vegetable oils be aided by membrane processes? Give the factors
affecting the process.

11. Give the major steps in vegetable oil processing where membranes can be used. Briefly
characterize the membranes used in each step.

12. Briefly give the traditional approaches for Dextrose Clarification and its membrane
alternative. How is the alternative beneficial? What are the uses of the clarified dextrose?

13. How are corn proteins separated by membrane technology?

14. What are: BOD, COD, TOC? Why is their removal from water stream important? What
types of membranes are used for this purpose?

15. What is Tubular pinch effect?

16. What do you mean by the ‘ash content’ of any product/material/extract? How is de-
ashing carried out conventionally?

17. What is Donnan effect?

18. What is biotechnology? Highlight the major applications of membrane in biotechnology.

19. Discuss the effect of membrane selection on quality of juice produced.

20. List the advantages of membrane filtration over traditional ones in fruit juice processing.

21. What are the two major applications of membrane technology in Citrus juice processing?

22. What is the importance of tannins and colloidal in wine making? How are they managed
using membranes?

23. Discuss the appropriate membrane size in context of wine making.

24. What is tank bottoms recovery in beer manufacture?