Protein extration from Bioethanol byproducts for human consumption using liquid hot water pretreatment

The global demand for protein is increasing due to the strong growth of global population and still expanding markets for protein supplements. Within this context, solid residues from bioethanol production offer an attractive alternative protein source for human nutrition that does not require additional land use. This research targets to investigate and optimize a hydrothermal extraction process for proteins from such solid residues, aiming to maximize protein yield while minimizing protein denaturation. Therefore, initially a compositional analysis of two different types of such residues – one from corn and the other from wheat bioethanol production – is conducted, revealing a protein content of 23 % and 28 %, respectively, based on the dry weight. To separate these proteins, a hydrothermal pre-treatment process using liquid hot water (LHW) is employed to solubilize them in water. To explore the solution space, hydrothermal treatment was conducted at various temperature levels (110 till 190 °C) and treatment times (5 till 70 min) to investigate the influence of these parameters. Wheat stillage exhibited the highest protein extraction yield at 190 °C, whereas corn stillage achieved its peak yield at 150 °C. Overall, the protein concentrations in the hydrolysates ranged between 20 % and 25 %.

Subjects

Proteins | bioethanol | hydrolysis | pretreatment | byproducts

DDC Class

572: Biochemistry

Publication version

submittedVersion

Lizenz

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Name

EUBCE 05.2025 Poster 6BV.2.14 Bioprohuman.pdf

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576.42 KB

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Adobe PDF

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Protein extration from Bioethanol byproducts for human consumption using liquid hot water pretreatment