The effects of membrane property on the permeate flux, membrane fouling and quality of clarified pineapple
juice were studied. Both microfiltration (membrane pore size of 0.1 and 0.2 lm) and ultrafiltration
(membrane molecular weight cut-off (MWCO) of 30 and 100 kDa) membranes were employed. Membrane
filtration did not have significant effects on the pH, reducing sugar and acidity of clarified juice
whereas the suspended solids and microorganism were completely removed. The 0.2 lmmembrane gave
the highest permeate flux, total vitamin C content, total phenolic content and antioxidant capacity as well
as the highest value of irreversible fouling. Based on these results, the membrane with pore size of 0.2 lm
was considered to be the most suitable membrane for the clarification of pineapple juice. The optimum
operating conditions for the clarification pineapple juice by membrane filtration was a cross-flow velocity
of 3.4 ms1 and transmembrane pressure (TMP) of 0.7 bar. An average flux of about 37 lm2 h1 was
obtained during the microfiltration of pineapple juice under the optimum conditions using batch concentration
mode