Vacuum membrane distillation of the main pear aroma compound: Experimental study and mass transfer modeling

In this work, the recovery of the main pear aroma compound, ethyl 2,4-decadienoate, by means of vacuum membrane distillation is studied. A commercial hollow fiber module of polypropylene (PP) microporous membranes and a model solution of ethyl 2,4-decadienoate in ethanol–water mixtures were used in the experimental study. The effect of the operating variables, aroma feed concentration, feed flow rate, temperature and downstream pressure onto the process performance was analysed. Aroma enrichment factors up to 15 were experimentally obtained. A strong and reversible sorption of the aroma compound onto the PP material was observed. This phenomena was characterized by a linear adsorption isotherm, image, where Kads(295.96 K) = 0.27 kg kg−1 m3 kg−1.