Formulating preliminary design optimization problem of an agrifood process using expert knowledge: Application to milk microfiltration

Skim milk crossflow microfiltration pore diameter 0.1 μm (MF 0.1 μm) is used in dairy industry to separate casein micelles (retentate) from serum proteins (permeate). This fractionation method allows the preservation of « native » properties of dairy proteins and offers many ways of valorization for the two products. • In the literature, optimization of MF 0.1 μm is only partial and empirical. • Many links between the process operating variables, product state variables and optimization objectives are not formalized. Knowledge elicitation can be coupled with optimization in order to solve the problem