Open AccessElectrofiltration improves dead‐end filtration of hyaluronic acid and presents an alternative downstream processing step that overcomes technological challenges of conventional methods
Author(s) -
Gözke Gözde,
Kirschhöfer Frank,
Prechtl Carolin,
BrennerWeiss Gerald,
Krumov Nikolay Venelinov,
Obst Ursula,
Posten Clemens
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
engineering in life sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.547
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 1618-2863
pISSN - 1618-0240
DOI - 10.1002/elsc.201600236
Subject(s) - downstream processing , filtration (mathematics) , downstream (manufacturing) , process engineering , hyaluronic acid , extraction (chemistry) , precipitation , chromatography , dispersion (optics) , chemistry , biological system , materials science , environmental science , biochemical engineering , engineering , mathematics , physics , statistics , biology , operations management , optics , meteorology , genetics
Hyaluronic acid (HA) dispersion obtained from the bacteria Streptococcus equi was concentrated by electrofiltration. In the conventional downstream processing of HA, extraction and precipitation lead to increase in environmental issues, structural changes, and time and energy related costs. Using electrofiltration as an alternative technology delivers solutions to these limitations. Experiments were conducted in order to test the applicability of electrofiltration to downstream processing of the negatively charged HA. The structural changes and molecular weight distributions, often a consequence of the employed separation method, were tested by analysis of the initial dispersions and final products. In comparison to the conventional filtration, concentration factors were increased up to almost four times without any detectable structural change in the final product.