A recent study conducted by the authors [5]
on the treatment of fish meal wastewaters through
a mineral tubular UF membrane of 15 kDa MWCO
showed that the membrane was too loose, since
the reduction of the organic load and the protein
rejections observed during the concentration
experiments were fairly low. Thus, it was concluded
that further investigation should be dedicated
to the use of UF membranes of lower MWCO or
NF membranes in order to actually accomplish
the aimed goals, i.e. environmental pollution
abatement, and recycling of water and proteins
into the process. In the present work, a ceramic
NF membrane of 1 kDa MWCO was successfully
tested for the treatment of fish meal wastewaters.
Due to the high amount of suspended matter in
these wastewaters a pre-treatment by microfiltration
(MF) cartridges was carried out.