| Summary: | The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of operating conditions and fructans size distribution on the tight Ultrafiltration process for agave fructans fractionation. A mathematical model of limiting mass flux transfer was used to represent the profile of concentrations over time at the outlet of a pilot scale ultrafiltration system. First, a Box-Behnken experimental design was performed for the optimization of the parameters that determine the operating conditions in their respective ranges: temperature, 30–60 °C; transmembrane pressure (TMP), 1–5 bar and feed concentration, 50–150 kg∙m<sup>−3</sup>, on the separation factor (<i>SF</i>) and permeate flux. Then, the validation of the model for different fructans size distribution was carried out. The results showed that for <i>SF</i>, the quadratic terms of temperature, TMP and feed concentration were the most significant factors. Statistical analysis revealed that the temperature-concentration interaction has a significant effect (<i>p</i> < 0.005) and that the optimal conditions were: 46.81 °C, 3.27 bar and 85.70 kg∙m<sup>−3</sup>. The optimized parameters were used to validate the hydrodynamic model; the adjustments conclude that the model, although simplified, is capable of correctly reproducing the experimental data of agave fructans fractionation by a tight ultrafiltration pilot unit. The fractionation process is favored at higher proportions of FOS:Fc in native agave fructans.
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