Development and Evaluation of PEG-Lithium Citrate Salt Based Aqueous Two Phase System and Its Application in Partitioning of Proteins from Fish Industry Effluent

Improved accuracy in pentraxin-3 quantification assisted by aqueous biphasic systems as serum pretreatment strategies

Although pentraxin-3 holds promise as a diagnosis/prognosis biomarker of microbial infections and lung cancer, its analysis in human serum can be constrained by matrix effects caused by high abundance proteins - human serum albumin and immunoglobulin G. Aqueous biphasic systems composed of polymers and citrate buffer are here proposed as a serum pretreatment step to improve the accuracy of pentraxin-3 analysis. Binodal curves were determined to identify the compositions required to form two phases and to correlate the polymers' properties and performance in serum pretreatment and biomarker extraction. Aqueous biphasic systems were evaluated regarding their ability to deplete human serum albumin and immunoglobulin G at the interphase. Polymers of relatively high to intermediate hydrophobicity were unveiled as efficient components to deplete high abundance serum proteins. Considering the possibility to extract pentraxin-3 from human serum into the polymer-rich phase, the system composed of polyethylene glycol with a molecular weight of 1000 g·mol-1 simultaneously achieved >93 % of human serum albumin and immunoglobulin G depletion and complete biomarker extraction. The accuracy of analysis of pretreated human serum by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays outperformed that of a non-pretreated sample, with a relative error of 0.8 % compared to 14.6 %, contributing to boost pentraxin-3 usefulness as a biomarker.

Phase diagrams of PEG1000,1500,2000,4000,6000 + lithium citrate + water ATPSs, and the partitioning of salbutamol at T = 298.15 K

Salbutamol is a drug used to treat the pulmonary diseases by ameliorate the medium and large airways in the lungs. Partitioning of salbutamol drug on the aqueous two-phase systems (ATPSs) of PEG_{1000,1500,2000,4000,6000} + trilithium citrate + water was determined at T = 298.15 K. The effect of molecular mass of polymer (MMP) on the binodal and tie-line compositions were studied. Results showed that the biphasic area was extended as the MMP was increased. The salting-out ability were quantified using the Setschenow model, and the binodal curves were modeled by a nonlinear 3-parameter equation. Furthermore, electrolyte Wilson along with the osmotic virial models have adequately been implemented to fit the tie-line compositions. Also, the studied ATPSs were implemented to study the partitioning of salbutamol drug on the salt-affluent and polymer-affluent phases. It is observed that, ATPSs of PEG₁₀₀₀ is premium to extract the salbutamol to the polymer-affluent phase, where, the ATPSs of PEG₆₀₀₀ is more favorable to extract the drug to the salt-affluent phase.

Recovery Techniques Enabling Circular Chemistry from Wastewater

In an era where it becomes less and less accepted to just send waste to landfills and release wastewater into the environment without treatment, numerous initiatives are pursued to facilitate chemical production from waste. This includes microbial conversions of waste in digesters, and with this type of approach, a variety of chemicals can be produced. Typical for digestion systems is that the products are present only in (very) dilute amounts. For such productions to be technically and economically interesting to pursue, it is of key importance that effective product recovery strategies are being developed. In this review, we focus on the recovery of biologically produced carboxylic acids, including volatile fatty acids (VFAs), medium-chain carboxylic acids (MCCAs), long-chain dicarboxylic acids (LCDAs) being directly produced by microorganisms, and indirectly produced unsaturated short-chain acids (USCA), as well as polymers. Key recovery techniques for carboxylic acids in solution include liquid-liquid extraction, adsorption, and membrane separations. The route toward USCA is discussed, including their production by thermal treatment of intracellular polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) polymers and the downstream separations. Polymers included in this review are extracellular polymeric substances (EPS). Strategies for fractionation of the different fractions of EPS are discussed, aiming at the valorization of both polysaccharides and proteins. It is concluded that several separation strategies have the potential to further develop the wastewater valorization chains.

Recovery of value-added products from wastewater using Aqueous Two-Phase Systems - A review

Aqueous two-phase system (ATPS) is long seen as a technique that promotes higher purity and yield in a single step. It is witnessing increased acceptance as a preferred choice for combined goals of concentration, separation and purification of a target product, be it industrially valuable or environmentally contaminating. Purification of biomolecules like enzymes, proteins, nucleic acids, viruses, etc. has been the forte of ATPS. Currently, the technique is used for concentrating the toxic fractions from diverse industrial let offs, from food, dairy, beverage, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, dyeing, tannery and metal-processing industries. Apart from being simple, efficient, rapid, flexible, economical, and biocompatible, the selectivity, purity and yield are on par and sometimes higher than the traditional downstream steps. From an industrial angle too, problems related to scale-up of ATPS are being actively addressed. Many novel approaches are being added by way of varying ATPS components to increase the yield and purity. Another case in point is the inclusion of optimization techniques for zeroing in on the precise setting of the operating parameters. With increasing impetus to the approach, we attempt to draw attention from academia and industries, alike, that are developing novel tweaks to the currently existing practices in ATPS. This review aims to assess and evaluate the different types of ATPS that have been used for the recovery of valuables and contaminants from industrial waste discharges.

Development of aqueous two-phase systems comprising poly ethylene glycol and dextran for purification of pullulan: Phase diagrams and fiscal analysis

Pullulan is a commercially important Exopolysaccharide (EPS) with wide-spread applications which is produced by Aureobasidium pullulans. The alternative α (1 4) & α (1 6) configuration in pullulan provides it the specific structural and conformational properties. Pullulan is currently being exploited in food, health care, pharmacy, lithography, cosmetics. The fermented broth is processed by organic solvent precipitation for isolation and purification of pullulan. In this study, we have tried to analyze the potential of aqueous two phase system as an alternate technique to extract pullulan from fermented broth. Including this viability of ATPS was also compared with conventional organic solvent precipitation system in terms of cost and time. It was found that ATPS process produced a higher yield of pullulan (80.56%) than organic solvent precipitation method (71.6%). ATPS was also found more economical and less time consuming method.

Aqueous two phase partitioning of fish proteins: partitioning studies and ATPS evaluation

A suitable Aqueous Two Phase System (ATPS) has been identified for the partitioning of crude fish proteins from fish processing industrial effluent. A detailed study has been performed to analyze the influence of various parameters on protein partitioning such as molecular weight of PEG, effect of different salts (MgSO4, K2HPO4, Na3C6H5O7, Na2SO4, (NH4) 2PO4, K3C6H5O7) and their concentrations, pH, temperature, Tie Line Length (TLL), effluent loading and volume ratio. PEG 2000 - sodium sulphate ATPS was found to be a most favourable system among the selected ATPS for higher partition coefficient of proteins. The binodal curve and equilibrium characteristics of PEG 2000 - sodium sulphate were established and fitted to empirical equations. The equilibrium compositions (tie line) were correlated using Othmer-Tobias and Bancroft equations.

Liquid-liquid equilibrium of poly(ethylene glycol) 6000 + sodium succinate + water system at different temperatures

Phase diagrams and the compositions of coexisting phases of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) 6000 + sodium succinate + water system have been determined experimentally at 298.15, 308.15, and 318.15 K. The effects of temperature on the binodal curve and tie lines have been studied. The binodal curves were successfully fitted to a nonlinear equation relating the concentrations of PEG 6000 and sodium succinate, and the coefficients were estimated for the formentioned systems (low AARD, high R², and low SD). Tie-line compositions were estimated and correlated using Othmer-Tobias and Bancroft equations, and the parameters were reported. The effect of temperature on the phase-forming ability has been studied by fitting the binodal data to a Setschenow-type equation for each temperature. The effective excluded volume (EEV) values were also calculated from the binodal data, and it was found out that the values increased with an increase in the temperature. Furthermore, the effect of MW of PEG on the phase diagram has been studied and verified.

Development and Evaluation of Environmentally Benign Aqueous Two Phase Systems for the Recovery of Proteins from Tannery Waste Water

Aqueous two phase systems (ATPSs) containing high molecular weight polyethylene glycol, PEG (10000), and completely biodegradable citrate salts (sodium citrate, potassium citrate, and ammonium citrate) with water were developed to recover the waste water proteins from a model tannery waste water system. The variations in the phase diagram were explained on the basis of ionic radius of cations, Gibbs free energy of hydration (ΔGhydation) of cations, and effective excluded volume (EEV) of salts. The salting-out capability of the cations followed the sequence: Sodium citrate > Potassium citrate > Ammonium citrate. Setschenow-type equations were used to correlate tie-line compositions. During partitioning studies, recovery of tannery waste water proteins in PEG 10000 + Sodium citrate ATPS was found superior to other systems. It was possible to recover 95.86% of proteins from tannery waste water in the bottom phase with PEG 10000 30% (w/w) + Sodium citrate 13% (w/w) at 30°C. The partition coefficients were correlated with the salt compositions by a quadratic equation and the coefficients were calculated.