Sugarcane juice clarification by lanthanum phosphate nanofibril coated ceramic ultrafiltration membrane: PPO removal in absence of lime pre-treatment, fouling and cleaning studies.

• LaPO 4 coated alumina based ceramic UF membrane was prepared. • Sugarcane juice clarification was carried out using this membrane. • Clarified sugarcane juice properties confirmed a better quality juice. • Innovative cleaning strategy using physical and chemical cleaning was implemented. • Stability of filtered juice for both feed and permeate over 7 weeks at 4 °C studied. The present work explores the possibility of employing rare earth phosphates deposited alumina substrates for ceramic membrane applications. Multichannel porous alumina supports are coated with Lanthanum phosphate nanofibrils of thickness 6 µm by sol-gel deposition technique. The performance of lanthanum phosphate coated ultrafiltration (UF) membrane for sugarcane juice clarification was studied by measuring polyphenol oxidase (PPO) enzyme, bacteria removal efficiency and permeate flux decline profile. The PPO enzyme activity was observed to be lower by 70% in permeate along with a less bacterial presence. The analysis of sucrose loss with time is also studied for raw sugarcane juice, clarified and limed sugarcane juice. A hybrid cleaning strategy involving an innovative brushing action on the membrane surface for physical cleaning combined with chemical cleaning was implemented in this study. The fouled membrane was analyzed by FESEM, EDX, and FTIR. Shelf-life study of feed and permeate confirmed that permeate was more stable than the feed. The experimental results conclude that raw sugarcane juice clarification using lanthanum phosphate coated UF membrane was viable with the use of innovative physical cleaning method as proposed in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]