Protein recovery as a resource from waste specifically via membrane technology—from waste to wonder

Abstract

Economic growth and the rapid increase in the world population has led to a greater need for natural resources, which in turn, has put pressure on said resources along with the environment. Water, food, and energy, among other resources, pose a huge challenge. Numerous essential resources, including organic substances and valuable nutrients, can be found in wastewater, and these could be recovered with efficient technologies. Protein recovery from waste streams can provide an alternative resource that could be utilized as animal feed. Membrane separation, adsorption, and microbe-assisted protein recovery have been proposed as technologies that could be used for the aforementioned protein recovery. This present study focuses on the applicability of different technologies for protein recovery from different wastewaters. Membrane technology has been proven to be efficient for the effective concentration of proteins from waste sources. The main emphasis of the present short communication is to explore the possible strategies that could be utilized to recover or restore proteins from different wastewater sources. The presented study emphasizes the applicability of the recovery of proteins from various waste sources using membranes and the combination of the membrane process. Future research should focus on novel technologies that can help in the efficient extraction of these high-value compounds from wastes. Lastly, this short communication will evaluate the possibility of integrating membrane technology. This study will discuss the important proteins present in different industrial waste streams, such as those of potatoes, poultry, dairy, seafood and alfalfa, and the possible state of the art technologies for the recovery of these valuable proteins from the wastewater. Graphical abstract

Latest Advances in Protein-Recovery Technologies from Agricultural Waste

“…Membrane technology has been demonstrated to be excellent in recovering proteins from waste sources [15,40]. The ultrafiltration method was applied to extract valuable protein from poultry-handling industry waste [15]. The result obtained from this experiment demonstrated the highly relevant and ideal application of ultrafiltration to extract protein from the poultry waste stream.…”

“…The discovery of usable protein from these wastes will be feasible along with the technology available for recovering nutrient-rich protein. Membrane separation, adsorption, microbe-assisted protein recovery, and other conventional extraction methods have been presented as potential strategies for protein recovery from waste [15][16][17]. The recovery of enzyme protein is one of the concerted efforts for converting these wastes into usable protein in the industry [9,18,19].…”

“…Membrane technology has been demonstrated to be excellent in recovering proteins from waste sources [15,40]. The ultrafiltration method was applied to extract valuable protein from poultry-handling industry waste [15].…”

“…Amylase purification can be completed either by various conventional or advanced methods available in today's technology [13][14][15][16][17][18][19]. Some of the prominent conventional methods for the extraction and purification of enzymes are filtration, membrane extraction, precipitation, liquid-liquid extraction, ultrasonication, and chromatography, which are described in this review article, as well as advanced methods, including the liquid biphasic system (LBS), liquid biphasic flotation (LBF), thermoseparation (TMP), and three-phase partitioning (TPP).…”

Recovery of Nitrogen from Low-Cost Plant Feedstocks Used for Bioenergy: A Review of Availability and Process Order

“…Protein purification after extraction usually depends on the physical and chemical properties of the target proteins. Acid precipitation, isoelectric precipitation coupled with electrolyzed water treatment, membrane separation, hydrophobic interaction chromatography, and electrophoresis are the most common methods to separate and purify proteins from agricultural and processing wastes. A large amount of nonproteinaceous compounds are also present in the protein precipitate .…”