a b s t r a c tIn this study, whey protein isolate (WPI) based bio-nanocomposite films embedded with zein nanoparticles (ZNP) were prepared by solution casting. Nanoparticles were coated with sodium caseinate to obtain a uniform distribution in the films. The mechanical, water vapor barrier, surface wetting, morphological and viscoelastic properties of the films were investigated. The addition of ZNP significantly improved the water vapor barrier and mechanical properties of the WPI without adversely affecting the elongation of the films. Dynamical mechanical analysis and contact angle measurements revealed that upon addition of the nanoparticles, the fractional free volume and hydrophilicity of the WPI films decreased. Sodium caseinate containing both hydrophilic and hydrophobic groups created an efficient interface between the hydrophobic ZNP and hydrophilic WPI matrix, allowing for a homogeneous distribution of nanoparticles even at very high loading levels as evidenced by the scanning electron microscope (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) images. The WPI/ZNP nanocomposite films can potentially become effective food packaging materials.

a b s t r a c tThe purpose of this study is to develop a novel controlled release system based on pH-responsive polyacrylic acid (PAA)/lysozyme (LYS) complexes incorporated within a hydrophilic whey protein isolate (WPI) film matrix for active food packaging applications. Complex formation is simple under benign conditions that are suitable for preserving antimicrobial activity of the lysozyme. In addition, the pHdependent charge density of complexes allowed a uniform distribution in the matrix. The properties of the complexes such as size, surface charge and hydrophilicity were varied by changing PAA/LYS ratio (0.1 and 0.3 w/w) and PAA molecular weight (2 kDa and 450 kDa). The effects of complex properties as well as mode of lysozyme incorporation into the films (100%-free, 50%-freeþ50%-PAA/LYS complex and 100%-PAA/LYS complex) on the LYS release rate, activity and antimicrobial efficacy of the films were investigated. The results have shown that~100% LYS loading into the complexes is possible regardless of PAA molecular weight or PAA/LYS ratio. Incorporating lysozyme into the film in complexed form extended its release time from less than 24 h up to 500 h and reduced its diffusivity from~10 À9 tõ 10 À13 cm 2 /s. The films including 50%-free-LYSþ50%-PAA/LYS complex showed a 5.7 log reduction in bacterial population within 72 h whereas 100%-free-LYS containing film could not suppress Listeria innocua growth after 24 h. Overall, the results suggest that complexation of lysozyme with weak polyelectrolytes can be used as an effective strategy to achieve a long-lasting antimicrobial effect and that films prepared with such complexes have great potential as food packaging materials.

Application of forward osmosis (FO) is limited due to membrane fouling and, most importantly, high reverse salt fluxes that deteriorate the concentrated product. Polydopamine (PDA) is a widely used, easily applicable, hydrophilic, adhesive antifouling coating. Among the coating parameters, surprisingly, the effect of PDA coating temperature on the membrane properties has not been well studied. Polyethersulfone (PES) 30 kDa ultrafiltration membranes were PDA-coated with varying dopamine concentrations (0.5–3 g/L) and coating temperatures (4–55 °C). The quality of the applied coating has been determined by surface properties, water permeability and reverse salt flux using a 1.2 M MgSO4 draw solution. The coating thickness increased both with the dopamine concentration and coating temperature, the latter having a remarkably stronger effect resulting in a higher PDA deposition speed and smaller PDA aggregates. In dead-end stirred cell, the membranes coated at 55 °C with 2.0 g/L dopamine showed NaCl and MgSO4 retentions of 41% and 93%, respectively. In crossflow FO, a low reverse MgSO4 flux (0.34 g/m2·h) was found making a very low specific reverse salt flux (Js/Jw) of 0.08 g/L, which outperformed the commercial CTA FO membranes, showing the strong benefit of high temperature PDA-coated PES membranes to assure high quality products.

Forward osmosis (FO) is an emerging process to dewater whey streams energy efficiently. The driving force for the process is the concentration gradient between the feed (FS) and the concentrated draw (DS) solution. Here we investigate not only the effect of the DS concentration on the performance, but also that of the FS is varied to maintain equal driving force at different absolute concentrations. Experiments with clean water as feed reveal a flux increase at higher osmotic pressure. When high product purities and thus low reverse salt fluxes are required, operation at lower DS concentrations is preferred. Whey as FS induces severe initial flux decline due to instantaneous protein fouling of the membrane. This is mostly due to reversible fouling, and to a smaller extent to irreversible fouling. Concentration factors in the range of 1.2–1.3 are obtained. When 0.5 M NaCl is added to whey as FS, clearly lower fluxes are obtained due to more severe concentration polarization. Multiple runs over longer times show though that irreversible fouling is fully suppressed due to salting in/out effects and flux decline is the result of reversible fouling only.

Forward osmosis (FO), using the osmotic pressure difference over a membrane to remove water, can treat highly foul streams and can reach high concentration factors. In this work, electrospun TFC membranes with a very porous open support (porosity: 82.3%; mean flow pore size: 2.9 µm), a dense PA-separating layer (thickness: 0.63 µm) covalently attached to the support and, at 0.29 g/L, having a very low specific reverse salt flux (4 to 12 times lower than commercial membranes) are developed, and their FO performance for the concentration of apple juice, manure and whey is evaluated. Apple juice is a low-fouling feed. Manure concentration fouls the membrane, but this results in only a small decrease in overall water flux. Whey concentration results in instantaneous, very severe fouling and flux decline (especially at high DS concentrations) due to protein salting-out effects in the boundary layer of the membrane, causing a high drag force resulting in lower water flux. For all streams, concentration factors of approximately two can be obtained, which is realistic for industrial applications.