Concentration of pineapple juice by reverse osmosis

Queensland pineapple production for the year ending 31 March, 1986, was 142000 t (ABS 1988). Pineapple juice provides the major processing outlet, accounting for about 70% of the State's fruit juice output. Most juice is concentrated by vacuum evaportion to reduce storage and transport costs. In recent years, reverse osmosis (R.O.) has found increasing application for concentrating food liquids, particularly dairy products (Schmidt, 1987). Advantages include lower energy consumption and better product quality retention. There have been a number of publications on fruit juice concentration by R.O. These have included apple juice (Sheu and Wiley 1984; Chua et al 1987; Paulson 1985), orange juice (Papanicolaou et al 1984), mandarin juice (Fukutani and Ogawa 1983, tomato juice (Robe 1983; Watanabe 1982; Gheradi et al 1986), grapefruit and lemon juices (Braddock et al 1988). However, information on pineapple juice concentration by R.O. is lacking. The aim of this research was to measure the effects of juice pre-treatment, operating temperature, membrane type, flow rate, pressure and degree of concentration on pineapple juice R.O.