Investigation of The Bubble Foam Separation Technique To Extract Protein From Whey

Abstract

Separation of proteins from whey; namely α- Lactoglobulin and β- Lactalbumin was obtained using the bubble foam column technique. Two types of whey were conducted in this study; yogurt whey and cheese whey. The effect of gas flow-rate and the height of the whey (liquid holdup) inside the column were studied at room temperature and at constant pH of whey. Whey used here obtained from local dairy factory as waste, and was used to investigate the performance ability of bubble column to extract very low concentration portion from waste. Enrichment ratio showed that the possibility of extracting protein from whey was high. Results showed that enrichment ration was higher for yogurt whey from that of cheese whey. The results also showed that the efficiency of separation of these proteins increased with decreasing both the air flow-rate, and wheys volume inside the column. The maximum amount of protein obtained at air flow-rate = 0.2 Liter/ min at experimental condition.