2025 Agenda

Empowering the Future: Workforce Development through Membrane Technology

Workforce development is a top industry concern, and membrane technology has a significant role to play in shaping the future of a wide range of food processing and water treatment applications. This session will explore the evolving landscape of job opportunities in membrane technology, focusing on key areas of innovation, including applications in the dairy industry and beyond. This timely keynote presentation will address:

• Connecting market trends and innovations in membrane technology with workforce solutions
• New and emerging career opportunities in membrane technology
• Strategies to prepare for the future of work, including upskilling, reskilling, and fostering a culture of continuous learning

Speaker

Manisha Dhawan
Vice President, Applied Membranes Inc.

Manisha Dhawan, vice president at Applied Membranes Inc. (AMI), is a keynote speaker, executive, and author of “The Digital Agile Leader.” With over two decades of experience leading change management and digital transformation initiatives at various organizations including PwC and Deloitte Consulting, Manisha has helped teams and leaders build critical skills to drive results in their careers and organizations. At AMI, a global leader in membrane technology, Manisha leads various strategic initiatives.

Market Spotlight: Dairy Foods, Beverages, and Ingredients

New for 2025, the “Market Spotlights” presentations as part of the Membrane Technology Forum agenda will highlight opportunities for food and beverage applications aligned with membrane separation and filtration. We will present recent sales data from Circana for established and emerging retail product categories, including Dairy Foods, Beverages, and Ingredients like Milk, Cheese, Yogurt, Lactose, Whey, and Permeate. These sessions will serve as “food for thought,” connecting sales data to prevailing consumer insights while illustrating strategic areas for domestic U.S. and global market development.

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Market Spotlight: Non-Dairy Beverages

New for 2025, the “Market Spotlights” presentations as part of the Membrane Technology Forum agenda will highlight opportunities for food and beverage applications aligned with membrane separation and filtration. We will present recent sales data from Circana for established and emerging retail product categories, including Non-Dairy Beverages like Juices, Beer, Wine, Sports Drinks, and Milk Alternatives. These sessions will serve as “food for thought,” connecting sales data to prevailing consumer insights while illustrating strategic areas for domestic U.S. and global market development.

Speaker

Doug Peckenpaugh
Group Publisher of Snack Food & Wholesale Bakery, Dairy Foods, The National Provisioner, and Packaging Strategies, BNP Media

Douglas J. Peckenpaugh is Group Publisher of Snack Food & Wholesale Bakery, Dairy Foods, The National Provisioner, and Packaging Strategies for BNP Media. He has nearly three decades of publishing experience following the food industry from farm to fork, covering agriculture, ingredient processing, retail grocery branding, foodservice menu development, and food product R&D and manufacturing. He serves in leadership roles at his local suburban Chicago food pantry and church. Doug studied Professional and Creative Writing at Purdue University.

Market Spotlight: Plant-Based Protein

New for 2025, the “Market Spotlights” presentations as part of the Membrane Technology Forum agenda will highlight opportunities for food and beverage applications aligned with membrane separation and filtration. We will present recent sales data from Circana for established and emerging retail product categories, including Plant-Based Proteins from Pulses, Beans, and Nuts. These sessions will serve as “food for thought,” connecting sales data to prevailing consumer insights while illustrating strategic areas for domestic U.S. and global market development.

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Market Spotlight: Non-Dairy Ingredients

New for 2025, the “Market Spotlights” presentations as part of the Membrane Technology Forum agenda will highlight opportunities for food and beverage applications aligned with membrane separation and filtration. We will present recent sales data from Circana for established and emerging retail product categories related to Non-Dairy Ingredients, including Sweeteners, Flavors, and Amino Acids. These sessions will serve as “food for thought,” connecting sales data to prevailing consumer insights while illustrating strategic areas for domestic U.S. and global market development.

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The Future of Dairy Processing: Exploring the Cost-Effectiveness of Next-Generation Reverse Osmosis Sanitary Membranes

Advances in milk processing and changing customer preferences are driving growth in the dairy market. Today, dairy processors face challenges in achieving energy savings while also improving yields without compromising performance. Membrane filtration offers a versatile solution, and advanced technology may be necessary depending on the desired outcome. Next-generation Reverse Osmosis (RO) elements, designed with enhanced membrane chemistry and a larger active surface area, can help produce high-quality dairy products that meet customer expectations for both productivity and nutritional value while maximizing energy savings. These membranes can efficiently remove water from dairy streams, reducing product volume and leading to savings in transportation and storage costs, as well as lowering evaporator loads and energy expenses for powdered product production.

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Engineering Innovative Nutritional Solutions for Evolving Consumer Preferences

As the global population grows and consumer demands evolve, membrane technologies are poised to play a transformative role in addressing future nutritional challenges to meet specific consumer needs while maintaining environmental responsibility. Membrane filtration can help unlock the potential of different raw food materials to engineer precision nutritional compositions. In this innovation-focused session, Shanti Bhushan, Ph.D., Senior Process Development Engineer, GEA, will explain how processors can formulate innovative nutritional solutions for various market sectors, including dairy, beverages, and functional foods, using membrane separation technologies. He will also discuss how the adoption of membrane technologies not only enhances product quality and consistency, but also promotes sustainability by reducing energy consumption, minimizing chemical usage, and facilitating waste valorization.

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Dairy-Specific Targets for the Betterment of Membrane Technology

Membrane technologies have wide applications across critical processes in the dairy industry, ranging across MF, UF, NF, RO and brine UF. Due to the unique nature of dairy membrane operations and the continued evolution of the needs of the industry, numerous gaps exist between the present and future needs of dairy and the characteristics, configurations, consistency and quality of membranes provided by many of today’s suppliers. In this session, we will explore both general needs such as extension of useful membrane life and specific opportunities for improvement such as surface area optimization and leaf pack configuration that will help ensure membrane technologies continued suitability for use in dairy’s critical operations.

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Next-Generation Ultrafiltration for Sustainable Dairy Applications

Membrane filtration is one of the core value-adding unit operations within dairy processing, and Alfa Laval has been involved in the efficient production of dairy products utilizing their wide range of membrane spiral elements since the 1970s. With more than 55 years of membrane experience, they are well positioned to support the new developments taking place in the dairy world, with special focus on sustainable processing solutions. This presentation will showcase a next-generation UF spiral membrane element specifically for dairy applications, not only describing the developmental journey that led to its development but also providing concrete examples of the benefits this new element delivers to help keep dairy processors at the forefront of available technology.

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Toward the Approval and Application of Novel Zwitterionic Membranes for the Dairy Industry

A new membrane chemistry, introduced to the dairy industry about four years ago, is transforming traditional dairy processing with significant cost and sustainability advantages. This innovative membrane platform chemistry, based on a zwitterionic copolymer, provides a compelling alternative to the decades-old membrane chemistries currently in use for the concentration of milk and whey proteins, lactose concentration, water polishing, and wastewater treatment.
Zwitterionic-based membranes are already in use for some of these applications, with more expected to launch later this year. The anti-fouling properties of these membranes address critical industry needs by offering multiple benefits. The membrane performance is fully recovered with shorter, easier cleaning cycles, leading to immediate cost savings through reduced chemical use. They also drive sustainability gains by minimizing water usage for flushes, reducing wastewater generation, and lowering energy demand for cleaning processes. The increased production uptime enabled by faster cleaning can also translate to higher product yields, fewer waste disposal requirements, and more efficient use of operator time. Initially adopted for wastewater treatment, zwitterionic membranes are now available for whey and milk processing, unlocking new opportunities for the dairy industry. This breakthrough technology delivers a powerful combination of improved operational efficiency, sustainability, and cost-effectiveness, setting new standards for the dairy industry.

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Selective by Design: Tuning Filtration Outputs to Reach Dairy’s Next Value Frontier

Traditional membrane filtration for dairy is largely limited to concentration of one feed fraction with corresponding reduction in the others, but the potential for membranes to take dairy processing forward to the next value frontier lies beyond this traditional approach. As the industry faces rising demand for clean label ingredients, for waste reduction, and for other sustainable innovations, membrane selectivity is emerging as a strategic tool not just for separation, but for transformation. This session will explore how purpose-driven advancements in membranes can help unlock high-value dairy fractions, elevate underutilized streams on the value curve, and create novel revenue-generating ingredients. Membrane technologies, when viewed with key technical insights in the context of global commercial opportunities, are poised to drive innovation by improving efficiency, enhancing ingredient functionality, and fulfilling market demands.

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Membrane Technology Fundamentals: Elevate Your Cleaning Program

Following basic chemistry fundamentals as part of an established training program will immediately improve membrane cleaning results. But many programs are available to the industry. How can food, beverage, and wastewater teams know where to begin? During this “Membrane Technology Fundamentals” presentation, Gene Parish, corporate sales and program manager, Sanitation Technologies Division, Anderson Chemical, will discuss how each membrane cleaning step enhances an operator’s ability to achieve restorative flux. He will present a deeper look into proper steps for cleaning membranes, clearing an easier path for operators to follow and identifying key signs to look for along the way. This session will cover cleaning applications for membranes used for development of foods and beverages, as well as new wastewater treatment plant technologies.

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Water Conservation and Efficiency Opportunities in Specific Areas of Dairy Membrane Operations

As in other industries, managing, saving, and optimizing the use of water has become an absolute necessity in order to control costs, improve sustainability, and preserve compliance with regulatory requirements. This is especially important in dairy which is a water-intensive industry by its nature and which is facing internal and external pressures for enhanced management of this valuable resource. In this presentation, current industry practices around MF, UF, NF, and RO will be discussed using real-world case studies, where improvement opportunities will be identified in each of four specific areas of membrane use spanning their entire life cycle from startup to the end of their useful life cycle. Potential optimization actions will address not just the membrane unit operations themselves but will also cover the attendant systems such as sanitary valves and CIP. Improvements options will also be presented across a broad cross-section of dairy membrane users ranging from smaller processors who may benefit from “quick wins” with implementations that are less capital intensive to more sweeping, complex opportunities with longer time horizons that may be better suited for large-scale operations.

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Emerging Membrane Utilization for Effective Alternative Production of High-Value Dairy Ingredients

Very recent research shows that spiral wound membrane elements are capable of increasingly complex protein fractionation tasks that until now have relied on techniques such as ion exchange chromatography for isolation, concentration and recovery. Membrane capabilities for the enrichment of specific whey proteins such as immunoglobulins and lactoferrin will be explained from the perspective of choosing the right membranes and will highlight the emerging potential for innovative products.
Next-generation ultrafiltration membranes are likely to be the workhorse technologies of these new, complex fractionation processes because they can deliver improved selectivity and enrichment in these demanding separations while providing higher flux. Field validation results for a new 10 kDa UF membrane compared performance against reference products across a range of relevant dairy streams including WPCs, WPI, and even skim milk. Those data will be shared to illustrate the preservation of separation performance while achieving 10-40% higher flux, depending on the test case.

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Synthesis of Antifouling Filtration Membranes

We produce controlled nanostructured membranes from crosslinking of self-assembled diacrylated poloxamer. At sufficiently high concentrations, poloxamers form lyotropic phases, such as lamellar, cubic packing of spherical micelles, and hexagonal (H1) packing of rod-like micelles. These mesophases have a periodic structure with a domain size of 2-50 nm. The normal oil-in-water hexagonal packing of rod-like micelles can be used as a template to produce orderly packed nanofiber membranes. The obtained nanostructure has a continuous 3D transport pathway. This study presents a polymerized mesophase with H1 structure, which can alter its transport properties in response to changes in temperature and pH. The formulation includes diacrylated poloxamers, which are thermoresponsive components acting as both macromer and structure-directing amphiphile. Therefore, the membrane pore size changes with temperature when is in contact with water. Furthermore, the precursor contains acrylic acid (AAc) as the charged component, which upon copolymerization with diacrylated poloxamers, not only enables ion separation through Donnan exclusion, but also imparts pH-responsive behavior for the separation of ionic species. We show that the nanostructured polymer can be used as a nanofiltration membrane with separation properties adjustable with temperature and pH. The membrane also has an exceptional resistance to fouling by various solutes due to its highly hydrophilic surface.

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Membrane Technology Fundamentals: Membrane Basics & Applications

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CIP Regimes for New Food Applications

During the last couple of years, new protein products have arrived across the food industry, gaining wider commercial appeal. The focus has mainly been on how to manufacture these products, focusing on formulating products with appealing taste and consistency. However, less is known about how to clean the plant afterward. Some of these processing applications are for the concentration and/or fragmentation of fish protein or plant-based protein. Other applications are specific to beverages, such as the clarification of oat drinks. New ingredient and product innovation using membrane filtration is ongoing. This session will discuss first how to identify the fouling material. The presentation will then discuss:

• How to optimize the production process to minimize fouling
• Investigating and testing known cleaning agents
• Creating new detergents, if needed to suit and/or attain robust consistent cleanability

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Removing PFAS and Other Contaminants through Regenerable Ion Exchange Resin

Federal regulators have begun analyzing and setting limits for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, otherwise known as PFAS, for drinking water, identifying the persistent, ubiquitous “forever chemicals” as a contaminant requiring mitigation. During this presentation, Farhad Farnia, CEO and Co-founder of Ecofilter Tek, will outline details of a new, customizable approach toward pH regenerable ion exchange resin empowered by Charge-Switching Technology. This technology enables end-users to remove PFAS efficiently, along with other contaminants, like heavy metals, from processing water and wastewater streams then regenerating for reusing the resin. The presentation will include preliminary data from current wastewater tests underway.

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Innovation Today for Tomorrow’s Membrane Cleaning

The food and beverage industry continues to widely embrace membrane filtration systems for specific process applications, so it’s well known we are currently in a period of transformation. We are seeing changes in work environments and customer or consumer expectations as well as technological advancements that present a unique blend of challenges and opportunities. This presentation will discuss our company’s journey to establish the necessary confidence customers need to be assured their membrane filtration systems are cleaned as efficiently and effectively as possible. This confidence comes from niche technology that can be implemented into a wide range of operations and utilized with real-time intelligence.

Speaker

Jamison Vanden Einde
Director of Commercial Technology, Hydrite Chemical Co.

Jamison Vanden Einde has 25+ years manufacturing and sanitation experience within the food and beverage industries. His passion for product development, project management and hands on approach to understanding industry process intricacies is what allows him to support the efforts of Hydrite and our customers as a Director of Commercial Technology. He is especially strong in CIP, environmental and membrane system cleaning as well as process aid application and optimization. Jamison has a B.S. from South Dakota State University and resides in Le Sueur, MN with his wife and two children.

The Science Behind Membrane Cleaning

It is important to choose the right chemistries when cleaning membranes. In this presentation, Caleb Power, Technical Support Specialist, Ecolab, will explore essential details surrounding soil-based membrane cleaning. He will walk attendees through the various steps required, outlining each type of chemistry (alkaline, acid, surfactant, oxidizers, and enzymes) and how they function to remove soil from membranes used in a variety of dairy-based applications. This session will also cover the importance of the multiple checks needed during each membrane clean-in-place (CIP) step.

Speaker

Caleb Power
Technical Support Specialist, Ecolab

Caleb is an Exec Area Technical Support Coordinator leading the membrane specialist team and has spent the last 9 year with Ecolab’s Food and Beverage Department.
Before Caleb’s current role, he spent 3 years on the technical service Hotline and before that spent 6 years as part of the research and development team for Ecolab where he spent his time developing new cleaners and sanitizers for the dairy market.
Caleb has received 7 different patents for the work he has done on new and innovating chemistries.

Real-Life Savings with Enzyme-Based Membrane Cleaning
Part 1: Molasse

Industrial filtration systems for food processing often face challenges related to fouling, inefficient cleaning, and costly maintenance. Conventional cleaning protocols often fall short, leading to reduced membrane performance, increased operational costs, and greater environmental impact. In this two-part session, Thibault Wauters, Head of Filtration & Sales, Realco, will show how new enzyme blends, including those designed for cold cleaning applications, perform in real-world applications to yield substantial gains in efficiency, sustainability, and total cost of ownership. In part one, he will cover a case study from a yeast production facility, where inefficient cleaning significantly hindered separation efficiency and reduced membrane lifespan. By implementing a tailored enzymatic solution optimized at a targeted pH, membrane lifespan has doubled or more, saving substantial replacement costs and preventing costly downtime. Concentrate separation efficiency improved by over 30%. Permeate quality improved and became more consistent, allowing for additional water reuse in the process and reduced effluent volumes. The higher concentrate total solids achieved reduced evaporation costs.

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Real-Life Savings with Enzyme-Based Membrane Cleaning
Part 2: Potato Starch

Industrial filtration systems for food processing often face challenges related to fouling, inefficient cleaning, and costly maintenance. Conventional cleaning protocols often fall short, leading to reduced membrane performance, increased operational costs, and greater environmental impact. In this two-part session, Thibault Wauters, Head of Filtration & Sales, Realco, will show how new enzyme blends, including those designed for cold cleaning applications, perform in real-world applications to yield substantial gains in efficiency, sustainability, and total cost of ownership. In part two, he will cover a case study from a potato starch facility, where membranes used in protein-concentration processes suffered from severe fouling after repeated use, making even extreme and frequent cleanings ineffective. Despite numerous attempts to clean the membranes using standard protocols, including protease-based solutions, the pilot plant was unable to maintain effective filtration, rendering the project unviable, as membranes grew irreversibly clogged after only a few runs. After an in-depth analysis of the residues, a tailored enzymatic cleaning protocol successfully restored membrane functionality, enabling daily production throughout the entire potato-processing season.

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Facility Tour

Ecolab Shuman Campus Technology Center

Eagan, MN