Australian Researchers Fast-Tracking New Forward Osmosis Food Technology

16 Dec 2016 --- The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation’s (CSIRO) has joined forces with specialists in the development and manufacturer of forward osmosis and membrane technology, Porifera, to bring new food technology to Australia.

The two companies aim to fast-track the development of specific forward osmosis applications that meet the needs of the food industry and provide opportunities for current and new processes and products. 

Speaking with FoodIngredientsFirst CSIRO’s separations specialist, Kirthi De Silva, says that because forward osmosis doesn’t use heat treatment, product quality and functionality is better. 

“Proteins aren’t denatured, for example, and volatiles such as aromas, flavors and bioactives are retained, meaning better quality products in terms of nutritional profile, texture and sensory attributes. Forward osmosis operates at considerably less hydraulic pressure than evaporation so it uses less energy and in fact the capital costs and operating costs of FO can be significantly less than evaporation,” he says.

“Compared to reverse osmosis and other membrane systems, because there’s no pressure applied, there’s significantly less fouling and cleaning is much easier, less costly and time consuming.”

Forward osmosis (an osmotic process that uses a semi-permeable membrane to effect separation of water from dissolved solutes) costs much less to implement and operate than its main competitor technology, evaporation, according to CSIRO, and it has applications in beverages such as fruit juices, dairy products, proteins, water treatment and any application where water is removed.

Preliminary estimates show that the capital costs of forward osmosis can be less than 70 percent and operating costs less than 60 percent of those for evaporation and forward osmosis can be installed on-farm, not just in-factory, which also reduces transportation costs. 

This technology, based on osmotic pressure, doesn’t use heat so concentrates are of higher functionality and quality. Aroma compounds and nutritional attributes, for example, are retained more than in evaporation, which does use heat. 

The technology was recently demonstrated in CSIRO’s food innovation centre where the first commercial unit was presented to attendees who also heard about a variety of potential product applications including future case studies on a dairy farm, in-factory manufacturing efficiency of existing products and improved ingredient functionality for yogurts, cheeses, flavors and heat sensitive bioactives. 

It was received very well and De Silva says the reaction from the more than 50 industry participants was very positive. 

“There were a lot if ideas that came up and a lot of interest. As a result, several companies are progressing discussions with us on product opportunities with the technology.”

“We expect that dairy will be a key sector of the industry to benefit because they are heavy users of concentration as part of the conversion of milk to dried products. We can also see this technology leading the dairy companies to new product development opportunities in functional dairy products, for example. We also see it being used on-farm for concentration of milk, which will also reduce transport costs. Another thing forward osmosis can be applied to in the dairy industry is concentrating protein fractions prior to drying, again because it’s a gentle process and retains functional properties.”

In addition, De Silva adds how thermal treatment of fruit juices can adversely affect product quality so he expects that beverage companies is another sector that could benefit from forward osmosis technology as a gentle method to concentrate without the loss of aromas, flavors and nutritional components.

“At CSIRO we have been working on forward osmosis in small pilot-scale for several years using technology supplied by Porifera and are excited to have just received the first industrial-scale forward osmosis system, that attendees saw operating in our food innovation center,” he adds.

by Gaynor Selby