Cheese whey was concentrated to a concentration factor of 2.7 in a pilot scale forward osmosis filtration system, using a commercial cellulose triacetate membrane in a spiral-wound configuration. The whey was concentrated in a batch mode, using sodium chloride as the draw solution at initial osmotic pressures of 53–75 bar. During the process, flux was shown to reduce due to the simultaneous decrease in the bulk osmotic pressure of the draw solution, increase in the bulk osmotic pressure of the whey and the effect of concentration polarisation on both sides of the membrane. The flux is known to be driven by the effective osmotic pressures of whey and the draw solution on the surface of the membrane active layer. A short-cut approach that requires minimal information in advance about the osmotic pressure of whey and the geometry of the filtration system was implemented, enabling the determination of these effective osmotic pressures. The results obtained were shown to be in agreement with the fundamental forward osmosis flux model. The short-cut approach can be utilised for estimating effective osmotic pressures of other liquid food streams to be concentrated by forward osmosis, without the need of external measurements.

在商业规模的正向渗透过滤系统中，使用商业化的三乙酸纤维素螺旋缠绕膜将干酪乳清浓缩至2.7的浓缩系数。乳清以分批模式浓缩，使用氯化钠作为汲取溶液，初始渗透压为53–75 bar。在此过程中，通量显示出下降的原因是，汲取溶液的总渗透压同时降低，乳清的总渗透压增加以及膜两侧的浓度极化效应。已知通量是由乳清和膜活性层表面上的汲取溶液的有效渗透压驱动的。实施了一种快捷方法，该方法需要事先最少地了解乳清的渗透压和过滤系统的几何形状，从而能够确定这些有效的渗透压。结果表明，该结果与基本的正向渗透通量模型一致。捷径法可用于估算其他液体食物流的有效渗透压，而无需进行外部测量即可通过正向渗透将其浓缩。