Isolation and characterization of components from whey

  • Yue Xu

Western Sydney University thesis: Doctoral thesis

Abstract

The structure, functionality, isolation methods and applications of whey components, particularly the proteins and lactose, have been extensively studied. These studies have had a great impact on the food industry where whey components are increasingly being used as food ingredients. Two generations of whey protein product, namely Lactalbumin, produced by heat-induced precipitation, and Whey Protein Concentration/ Isloate, produced by ultrafiltration/ ion exchange chromatography, have been commercialised. Crystalline lactose in the food and pharmaceutical grades is also being produced. Recently, research activities in whey fractionation have shifted to the isolation of the minor components. This thesis is aimed at developing a Total Whey Utilization strategy by which the several components of the whey stream would be completely recovered by fractionation, resulting in little or no residue to be disposed of in the wastewater stream. Therefore, this study was initially dedicated to the development of novel separation methods which would be suitable for the Total Whey Utilization process. The development of those techniques revealed some previously unknown feature of whey components. The mechanisms of the separation methods have been also investigated. Although crystallization is an efficient method for fractionation or purification, its disadvantage is that the mother liquor is a wastewater containing high salt and BOD (Biological Oxygen Demand). The chromatographic method has been investigated in this work to separate the mother liquor or permeate into lactose and mineral fractions such that a goal of this thesis, namely a 'clean' water stream after processing whey, can be finally achieved. These studies have focused on the effect of resin type, salt form of the resin and the operating conditions on the separation of the lactose and mineral fraction.
Date of Award1996
Original languageEnglish

Keywords

  • resin
  • whey
  • purification
  • lactose
  • proteins
  • crystallization
  • isolation methods
  • separation
  • protein

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