(TKP2021-NKTA-21) Támogató: Nemzeti Kutatási, Fejlesztési és Innovációs Hivatal
Membrane-based beverage dealcoholization is a successful process for producing low-
and non-alcoholic beer and represents a fast-growing industry. Polyamide NF and RO
membranes are commonly applied for this process. Polyelectrolyte multilayer (PEM)
NF membranes are emerging as industrially relevant species, and their unique properties
(usually hollow fiber geometry, high and tunable selectivity, low fouling) underlines
the importance of testing them in the food industry as well. To test PEM NF membranes
for beer dealcoholization at a small pilot scale, we dealcoholized filtered and unfiltered
lager beer with the tightest available commercial polyelectrolyte multilayer NF membrane
(NX Filtration dNF40), which has a MWCO = 400 Da, which is quite high for these purposes.
Dealcoholization is possible with a reasonable flux (10 L/m2h) at low pressures (5–8.6
bar) with a real extract loss of 15–18% and an alcohol passage of ~100%. Inorganic
salt passage is high (which is typical for PEM NF membranes), which greatly affected
beer flavor. During the dealcoholization process, the membrane underwent changes which
substantially increased its salt rejection values (MgSO4 passage decreased fourfold)
while permeance loss was minimal (less than 10%). According to our sensory evaluation,
the process yielded an acceptable tasting beer which could be greatly enhanced by
the addition of the lost salts and glycerol.
