A review of technologies and applications for water purification in the food & beverage industry

Food & Beverage (F&B) industry is known as a water intensive sector. Thousands of litres per hour of pure water are necessary to produce the final drinks, for the line and backup process requirements of medium size production plants. Due to health restrictions and the F&B standard, the physical, chemical and biological quality of process water has to fit with high level of purity. To this purpose, all F&B plants require a dedicate water purification unit making raw water (both primary and recovered) ready-for-use. Such units are process plants based on mechanical and chemical purification technologies, mainly. This paper aims at revising the state-of-art of research and practice in this field. Starting from the process description and the expected water quality level, a matrix analysis, according to a panel of classification drivers, allows outlining the current research streams and the most popular technologies. The industrial sector, the fluid features and the adopted technology are among the investigated drivers. Results highlight a wide range of solutions, often combined in series to increase the final effect. Lacks are in applications dedicated to the wastewater purification, implementing local close-loops to decrease the overall F&B water intensity.