ZwitterCo has released its Evolution Membrane product family. These membranes are engineered to help food, dairy and biotech processors increase productivity, reduce cleaning costs and advance sustainability objectives — all without requiring changes to existing systems.

In food and dairy processing, every minute counts, but daily cleanings can consume production time and increase chemical consumption and water demand. The Evolution Membranes, which are built with ZwitterCo’s zwitterionic chemistry, are anti-fouling and recover performance with a simplified cleaning program. This enables processors to clean faster, use fewer chemicals and reclaim over an hour per day for production or other tasks.

“Milk and whey processors often ask, ‘What’s new?’ ZwitterCo Evolution Membranes are the answer to that question,” says Jon Goodman, ZwitterCo vice president for food processing and specialties. “Our patented, anti-fouling membranes offer a huge step-change in cleanability and performance; this is membrane technology evolving.”

Available in an ultrafiltration membrane for protein concentration (PCM), superfiltration (SF), and reverse osmosis (RO) membrane configurations, the Evolution Membranes are one-for-one replacements for conventional sanitary spiral membranes. They install easily in existing systems, with no hardware changes needed to experience lower operational costs and time savings.

Performance in the Field

Early adopters have demonstrated gains with the Evolution RO Membranes for concentrating effluent and wastewater in whey processing facilities. These processors eliminated the enzyme step from their cleaning programs, cutting cleaning costs by more than 50% and reducing water use by over 30%. And they save an hour for every step removed from the cleaning program.

A Standard for Operational Efficiency and Sustainability

ZwitterCo’s Evolution Membranes are built to give dairy and food process manufacturers more of what they value most: productivity. At the core of the offerings is the anti-fouling nature of ZwitterCo’s technology. This enables a shift in how cleaning programs are approached and a stable flux curve. ZwitterCo’s Evolution Membranes make cleanings faster and less resource-intensive. And, due to less fouling, the Evolution Membranes offer a higher average operating flux.

Benefits of the Evolution Membranes include:

• Productivity with a stable flux curve
• Production Time: Fewer cleaning cycles free up hours of operating time per week.
• Cleaning Costs: ZwitterCo’s Evolution Membranes can eliminate cleaning program steps. The Evolution Membranes also reduce chemical, water and energy use while minimizing wastewater generation.
• Operation: Lower resource consumption and reduced wastewater support corporate sustainability goals.
• Integration: All the Evolution Membrane’s elements are direct replacements for standard sanitary spirals. No new CAPEX is required.

ZwitterCo’s Evolution Membranes are available for a range of concentration and fractionation applications in food processing, dairy processing, bioprocessing and more.