U SMRUTHI, SALIYA PARVEEN, G SUDHA, Corresponding author
Department of Chemical Engineering, Sri Venkateswara College of Engineering, Pennalur, India.
SASHANK SRIRAM, ASWIN SEGHAR, V GANESH, Co-corresponding author
Department of Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering and Technology, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Kattankulathur, Tamil Nadu, India.
Studies on improvisation of Protein purification by foam fractionation
Authors
Abstract
In bioprocess industries, the separation of desired components from the residual mixture is a very
important operation. Foam separation is one such downstream process which has wide application
in varied industrial fields from ore floatation to industrial effluent treatment. This work concerns the
study of separation of protein from protein-containing mixtures by selective foam fractionation,
including the mechanism of the enrichment of water-soluble protein in batch foam separation. The
fractionations of binary proteins used in this study were ‘Bovine serum albumin (BSA)’ and
‘Hemoglobin (HG)’. The gas flow rate, pH of the feed solution, and the protein concentration in the
bulk solution were varied to study the effect of ‘enrichment factor’ in foam fractionation and to
optimize the operating parameters in this present investigation. It has been found that an increase in
the gas flow rate and the allowance of time for drainage results in better separation. At a pH of
around 5.5, the separation of binary proteins was observed to be maximum. The concentrations of
BSA and HG in bulk solution were found to be maximum at 1.8 mg/ml and 1.0 mg/ml respectively.