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Membrane Applications and Research in Food Processing
Journal of Membrane Science, 50 (1990) 101-102 Elsevier Science Publishers B.V., Amsterdam - Printed in The Netherlands
101
Book Review
Membrane Applications and Research in Food Processing, by C.M. Mohr et al. Noyes Publications, Mill Road at Grd. Ave., Park Ridge, NJ 07656, U.S.A., 1989, $45 (U.S. ). If you’re a data freak who likes food and membranes, especially if you also know what a kilowatt-hour is, this is the book for you. It is crammed with more facts and references than anything I’ve picked up in ages. If you’ve always wanted to know how to use membranes in the production of Lutefisk, flip to p. 44. I’ll bet Osmonics has a lock on that application! The book is the result of a DOE study on energy use in the food industry, and how membranes relate to it. The authors open with the statement that the food processing industry consumes 1.5 x 1015BTU annually, and looking at ways to reduce that starts with understanding why and where it is used. After a brief look at the food industry and its major energy inputs, followed by a brief discussion of the membrane industry, the authors discuss Meat&Poultry, Dairy, Fruit and Vegetable, Grain Milling, Baking, Sugar and Confectionery, Fats and Edible Oils, and Beverages. The lengthy dairy section is roughly half the book, appropriate in view of the large use of membranes in that industry. The volume contains an incredible amount of information - the authors have correlated energy data, industry data and folded in membrane data in a way that is easy to follow. They are on the optimistic side regarding use - if someone says a membrane might be useful in an application, who are they to argue. The references bear the stamp of a major literature search. There are some pretty obscure sources quoted. In a book with this much data, and with so many references, there are bound to be some errors. Some are lulus. I naturally paid particular attention to the section on UF, where I learned, on p. 109 that whey can be fractionated in a spiral plant for 0.8-1.4 kWh/m3. Then I read that tubular modules require 381200 kWh/m3 to do the same job. To be fair, the authors smell a rat, and they state “the estimated energy requirements for tubular modules appear to be high; the reasons for this wide range are not clear.” I don’t criticize them for not spotting that the spiral numbers are too low by a factor of perhaps 3, that’s specialist knowledge, but to report something as absurdly wrong as a membrane separation taking multiples of the latent heat makes me wonder. There are some troubling inconsistencies, seeming to point up late editing. In the Executive summary, we learn that UF fractionation of milk for natural cheese (has) been researched, but (is) not used commercially. Later, on p. 121,
102
we get up to date information that it is commercial in Australia (1986)) and that a U.S. plant is about to start. As a passing point, the supplier of the membranes was not APV (they supplied the hardware) but Koch. The most glaring, and in the age of computers unforgivable, omission, is the lack of an index. The table of contents is unusually good, but that is not an adequate substitute in a book of this sort. There are many more little errors, but if you read it with your critical functions intact, it can be a very useful reference. For what it is, a specialized study now published in book form, its well done. If you are in food and membranes, it’s a must-have. BILL EYKAMP College of Engineering University of California Berkeley, CA, U.S.A.
101
Book Review
Membrane Applications and Research in Food Processing, by C.M. Mohr et al. Noyes Publications, Mill Road at Grd. Ave., Park Ridge, NJ 07656, U.S.A., 1989, $45 (U.S. ). If you’re a data freak who likes food and membranes, especially if you also know what a kilowatt-hour is, this is the book for you. It is crammed with more facts and references than anything I’ve picked up in ages. If you’ve always wanted to know how to use membranes in the production of Lutefisk, flip to p. 44. I’ll bet Osmonics has a lock on that application! The book is the result of a DOE study on energy use in the food industry, and how membranes relate to it. The authors open with the statement that the food processing industry consumes 1.5 x 1015BTU annually, and looking at ways to reduce that starts with understanding why and where it is used. After a brief look at the food industry and its major energy inputs, followed by a brief discussion of the membrane industry, the authors discuss Meat&Poultry, Dairy, Fruit and Vegetable, Grain Milling, Baking, Sugar and Confectionery, Fats and Edible Oils, and Beverages. The lengthy dairy section is roughly half the book, appropriate in view of the large use of membranes in that industry. The volume contains an incredible amount of information - the authors have correlated energy data, industry data and folded in membrane data in a way that is easy to follow. They are on the optimistic side regarding use - if someone says a membrane might be useful in an application, who are they to argue. The references bear the stamp of a major literature search. There are some pretty obscure sources quoted. In a book with this much data, and with so many references, there are bound to be some errors. Some are lulus. I naturally paid particular attention to the section on UF, where I learned, on p. 109 that whey can be fractionated in a spiral plant for 0.8-1.4 kWh/m3. Then I read that tubular modules require 381200 kWh/m3 to do the same job. To be fair, the authors smell a rat, and they state “the estimated energy requirements for tubular modules appear to be high; the reasons for this wide range are not clear.” I don’t criticize them for not spotting that the spiral numbers are too low by a factor of perhaps 3, that’s specialist knowledge, but to report something as absurdly wrong as a membrane separation taking multiples of the latent heat makes me wonder. There are some troubling inconsistencies, seeming to point up late editing. In the Executive summary, we learn that UF fractionation of milk for natural cheese (has) been researched, but (is) not used commercially. Later, on p. 121,
102
we get up to date information that it is commercial in Australia (1986)) and that a U.S. plant is about to start. As a passing point, the supplier of the membranes was not APV (they supplied the hardware) but Koch. The most glaring, and in the age of computers unforgivable, omission, is the lack of an index. The table of contents is unusually good, but that is not an adequate substitute in a book of this sort. There are many more little errors, but if you read it with your critical functions intact, it can be a very useful reference. For what it is, a specialized study now published in book form, its well done. If you are in food and membranes, it’s a must-have. BILL EYKAMP College of Engineering University of California Berkeley, CA, U.S.A.