Polyelectrolyte Precipitation: A New Green Chemistry Approach to Recover Value-Added Proteins from Different Sources in a Circular Economy Context

Abstract

Proteins have always been vital biological molecules used for industrial purposes, human nutrition and health. Nowadays, seeking new alternatives and sources of these biomolecules is becoming an increasing research trend derived from the present consumer awareness between food consumption and health promotion, but also on environmental sustainability. Although there are different consolidated/traditional downstream processes to obtain proteins, such as chromatography tools, alkali hydrolysis, precipitation by inorganic salts and organic solvents, their industrial-scale application still demands urgent innovation due to the poor recovery yields, high costs and time-consuming steps, environmental impact as well as some toxic concerns. Polyelectrolyte precipitation represents a green, innovative alternative for protein recovery; however, there are reduced data regarding its pilot or industrial-scale application. In this literature work, the action mechanism and principles with regards to its functionality and insights for its application on a big scale are reviewed. Overall, this review discusses the novelty and sustainability of protein precipitation by polyelectrolytes from different sources against traditional techniques as well as highlights the relationship between protein source, production relevance and bioactive properties that are key factors to maximize the application of this extractive method on a circular economy context.

Avaliação De Modelo Didático Sobre a Herança Da Anemia Falciforme No Ensino De Genética

“…in-depth study or to commercialize safe products. Generally, purification process of proteins include precipitation using water or aqueous buffers in combination with organic solvents (acetone), bases (ammonium sulfate) or salts such as ion exchange, also electrophoresis or affinity chromatography can be used (Adhikari et al, 2010;Gómez-García et al, 2022). But these methods have multiple disadvantages such as negative effects on proteins including denaturation or complexation and high costs.…”

Trends in Green Chemistry Research between 2012 and 2022: Current Trends and Research Agenda

“…Similarly, studies have evaluated the recovery of bioactive compounds from agro-industry-derived by-products [22]. On a large scale, these agro-industry by-products urgently require green innovation due to their low recovery yields and high environmental impacts, with some concerns about their toxicity [23]. Simultaneously, novel automated methods have been proposed for the analysis of pesticides in food [24].…”