abstract
Ionic liquid-based three-phase partitioning (ILTPP) is a promising technique to recover high-added value proteins at the liquid-liquid interface. Its economic and environmental performance highly depends on the net ionic liquid consumption. Alternatives to maximize the fraction of ionic liquid that can be recycled are studied. It is demonstrated that the addition of extra salt, previously proposed in literature, has a very limited effect on ionic liquid recovery for relatively high protein concentrations in the feed stream, and that it may even lead to an increase of the ionic liquid losses under certain conditions. However, small additions of salt are shown to be effective and profitable from an economic point of view. Vacuum evaporation is shown to allow for the complete ionic liquid and salt recovery, reinforcing the sustainability and viability of ILTPP processes. (c) 2014 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 60: 3577-3586, 2014
keywords
AQUEOUS BIPHASIC SYSTEMS; 2-PHASE SYSTEMS; SEPARATION; PURIFICATION; LACTOFERRIN; EXTRACTION; SALTS; PENICILLIN; PROTEINS; HEPTANE
subject category
Engineering
authors
Alvarez-Guerra, E; Irabien, A; Ventura, SPM; Coutinho, JAP
our authors
Sónia Patrícia Marques Ventura
Assistant ProfessorProjects
acknowledgements
Enrique Alvarez-Guerra acknowledges the financial support of the Teaching staff Vice-chancellorship of Universidad de Cantabria to carry out the research stay at Universidade de Aveiro in which the present work was developed. The Portuguese team is grateful for the financial support from FEDER through Programa Operacional Fatores de Competitividade - COMPETE and national funds through FCT - Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia within CICECO project - FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-037271 (ref: FCT Pest-C/CTM/LA0011/2013). The authors also thank the financial support through the project PTDC/AAC-AMB/119172/2010 and the post-doctoral grant of S. P. M. Ventura (ref: SFRH/BPD/79263/2011).