Potential of continuous electrophoresis without and with porous membranes (CEPM) in the bio-food industry: review

During the last 50 years, membrane-based technologies have evolved from a laboratory to industrial scale and showed significant technical and commercial impact. Today membrane-based technologies are receiving considerable attention and are successfully used for desalination of sea and brackish waters, treatment of different industrial effluents. They are efficient tools and offer smooth conditions for concentration, separation as well as purification of food and pharmaceutical products containing ionic species or charged biologically active molecules. The evolution of different membrane-based technologies makes several processes cleaner and more energetically efficient, and thus the development and use of these technologies contributes more and more to their sustainable use in different areas in bio-food industry, biotechnology, pharmaceutical and nutraceuticals industries. One of the recent developments in membrane-based technologies is a hybrid process consisting in combination between conventional electrodialysis and different porous membranes such as microfiltration, ultrafiltration and nanofiltration membranes. Therefore, this review is aimed to give a brief summary of the different characteristics and application possibilities in the above mentioned fields of electrodialysis combined with porous membranes. The most relevant literature data in the given field are surveyed and some elucidating case studies are discussed, also accounting for the results of some research programs carried on different subjects, especially those related to the bio-food industry.