Application of Ion Exchange and Adsorption Techniques for Separation of Whey Proteins from Bovine Milk

Abstract

\n\nThe world production of whey was estimated to be more than 200 million tons per year.\nAlthough whey is an important source of proteins with high nutritional value and biotechnological importance, it is still\nconsidered as a by-product of the dairy industry with low economic value due to low industrial exploitation. There are\nseveral challenges in the separation of whey proteins: low concentration, the complexity of the material and similar\nproperties (pI, molecular mass) of some proteins.\n\n\n\n A narrative review of all the relevant papers on the present methodologies based on ion-exchange and\nadsorption principles for isolation of whey proteins, known to the authors, was conducted.\n\n\n\nTraditional ion-exchange techniques are widely used for the separation and purification of the bovine whey\nproteins. These methodologies, based on the anion or cation chromatographic procedures, as well as combination of\naforementioned techniques are still preferential methods for the isolation of the whey proteins on the laboratory scale.\nHowever, more recent research on ion exchange membranes for this purpose has been introduced, with promising\npotential to be applied on the pilot industrial scale. Newly developed methodologies based either on the ion-exchange\nseparation (for example: simulated moving bed chromatography, expanded bed adsorption, magnetic ion exchangers, etc.)\nor adsorption (for example: adsorption on hydroxyapatite or activated carbon, or molecular imprinting) are promising\napproaches for scaling up of the whey proteins’ purification processes.\n\n\n\nMany procedures based on ion exchange are successfully implemented for separation and purification of\nwhey proteins, providing protein preparations of moderate-to-high yield and satisfactory purity. However, the authors\nanticipate further development of adsorption-based methodologies for separation of whey proteins by targeting the\ndifferences in proteins’ structures rather than targeting the differences in molecular masses and pI. The complex\ncomposite multilayered matrices, including also inorganic components, are promising materials for simultaneous\nexploiting of the differences in the masses, pI and structures of whey proteins for the separation. \n