ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the use of membrane processes for the recovery, concentration, and puri cation of compounds with target bioactivity from complex agro-industrial process streams and residues. Considering the large diversity of membrane processes used nowadays at industrial scale, the authors decided to focus this chapter on membrane processes particularly suitable to deal with the recovery of small bioactive molecules (molecular weight below 1 kDa). This option derives from the fact that the literature about recovery of large bioactive molecules, such as proteins, by membrane and other downstream processes is rather abundant. Small molecules started recently to attract a growing interest, which is certainly linked to the recognition of their diverse and powerful bioactive properties, including antioxidant and anticarcinogenic activities. Small bioactive molecules may be recovered from agroindustrial process streams by different membrane operations, namely pervaporation,
nano ltration, and electrodialysis, usually integrated in multistep schemes. This chapter describes rstly the basic principles, features, and limitations of these membrane operations and, secondly, illustrates how these processes may be used for the recovery of valuable bioactive compounds.
