Beer dealcoholization by reverse osmosis

From the preliminary results it can be concluded that reverse osmosis is an effective process to produce non-alcoholic beer, with ethanol values below 0.5% by volume. The most critical parameters in the membrane process have been studied and it can be concluded that the most promising conditions for alcohol removal are the maximum pressures that membranes can support (due to the higher permeate flux and better aroma profile, although increasing slightly the ethanol rejection) and the optimal temperature is around 5°C. At low temperatures membranes become more effective (higher rejection to aroma compounds) and heat sensitive compounds of the beer do not suffer any changes. Nevertheless, it is crucial to control the operation conditions that can make a great difference in the final product quality. This means that it is necessary to perform more tests in order to evaluate the effect of the process variables and the operation mode of the dealcoholization on the beer quality in order to produce a non-alcoholic beer with an aroma profile similar to the original one.