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Electrostatic separation technology enables protein enrichment of oilseed meals

04 March 2022

Scientists at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) are participating in the TRIBOTEC project, which is researching novel dry fractionation technology to obtain highly functional proteins from previously underutilised resources. 

“Protein quality and supply is a critical factor for global food security, nutrition, and the environment. New technologies for protein extraction are therefore essential,” said Professor Petra Först, Professor in the Department of Systems Process Engineering at the TUM School of Life Sciences in Freising – Weihenstephan.

Freising scientists are participating in the TRIBOTEC project – led by the German Institute of Food Technologies (DIL) ¬– which is researching protein enrichment and fractionation of agricultural by-products using dry triboelectrostatic separation technology.

The process uses air currents to swirl ground materials and electrostatically charge them. These physical forces separate the fine fraction enriched with protein from the coarse fractions enriched with fibre and starch.  The result is two separate fractions, one of which has a higher protein content than the initial sample.

The advantages over conventional methods are: water and solvent free separation, lower energy consumption and operating costs, retention of the original functionality of the protein, and applicability to a wide range of materials.

In their experiments, Dr. Perez Vaquero and his team studied seeds of plants – in this case, canola and lupin seeds.  The total protein gain ranged from 5% for canola meal to 20% for lupin meal.  
Dr. Perez Vaquero said: “Our research has shown that higher masses (kilograms/hour) can be handled than previous studies have found.  We can thus achieve mass processing of up to several kg/hour, which is a tenfold increase. Hence, we are one step closer to achieving a protein value high enough to be used in industry.”

This research is said to open up potential for the use of previously underutilised alternative protein sources. By-products that regularly arise in the food industry, for example sunflower or rapeseed press cake as residues from oil production, can be enriched and further processed to provide a source of highly functional protein in a diverse range of products including animal and fish feed, and as protein for the production of meat substitutes. Furthermore, the process also makes it possible to develop completely new vegetable protein sources.


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