ArticleMembranes2023
Microbubble-Assisted Cleaning-in-Place Process for Ultrafiltration System and Its Environmental Performance.
Article in Membranes, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Green and novel cleaning method by plasma-activated water on a microfiltration membrane after apple juice clarification.Food chemistry: X · 2026Article
- Advances in Microbubble Technologies for Food Sanitization: A Comprehensive Review.Comprehensive reviews in food science and food safety · 2025Review
- State-of-the-Art Advances and Current Applications of Gel-Based Membranes.Gels (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Membrane filtration is a key technology in dairy processing for the separation of dairy liquids to clarify, concentrate, and fractionate a variety of dairy products. Ultrafiltration (UF) is widely applied for whey separation, protein concentration and standardization, and lactose-free milk production, though its performance can be hindered by membrane fouling. As an automated cleaning process commonly used in the food and beverage industries, cleaning in place (CIP) uses large amounts of water, chemicals, and energy, resulting in significant environmental impacts. This study introduced micron-scale air-filled bubbles (microbubbles; MBs) with mean diameters smaller than 5 μm into cleaning liquids to clean a pilot-scale UF system. During the UF of model milk for concentration, cake formation was identified as the dominant membrane fouling mechanism. The MB-assisted CIP process was conducted at two bubble number densities (2021 and 10,569 bubbles per mL of cleaning liquid) and two flow rates (130 and 190 L/min). For all the cleaning conditions tested, MB addition largely increased the membrane flux recovery by 31-72%; however, the effects of bubble density and flow rate were insignificant. Alkaline wash was found to be the main step in removing proteinaceous foulant from the UF membrane, though MBs did not show a significant effect on the removal due to the operational uncertainty of the pilot-scale system. The environmental benefits of MB incorporation were quantified by a comparative life cycle assessment and the results indicated that MB-assisted CIP had up to 37% lower environmental impact than control CIP. This is the first study incorporating MBs into a full CIP cycle at the pilot scale and proving their effectiveness in enhancing membrane cleaning. This novel CIP process can help reduce water and energy use in dairy processing and improve the environmental sustainability of the dairy industry.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.