SERICIN PROTEIN RECOVERY FROM SILK DEGUMMING WASTEWATER IN PILOT SCALE VIA MEMBRANE HYBRID PROCESSES

2021-5-17
Gençtürk, Merve
The conventional degumming method that consists of alkaline washing of silk yarn with Marseille soap at high temperatures, dissolves sericin protein into the water and produces so-called silk degumming wastewater (SDW) which is rich in sericin protein. In this study, the separation of sericin protein from the SDW was studied. Firstly, the separation of sericin containing phase from the SDW was optimized. SDW samples were prepared with the application of different soap to silk yarn ratios (FO) and tested for phase separation performance. It was determined that the best phase separation occurs when the ratio was 0.40. Pilot-scale membrane filtration tests were applied for further separation of sericin with the use of Ultrafiltration (UF) and Nanofiltration (NF) membranes at 2 and 4 bar, respectively. UF and NF membranes were also tested in a sequential mode to increase sericin recovery. NF membrane rejection was around 90-100% while UF membrane had only 10-30% sericin rejection. NF membrane feed tank sericin concentration reached 37000 mg/L whereas UF membrane feed tank concentration was around 6000 mg/L.When further purification of sericin from the retantate of the NF was tested by the application of ethanol-induced precipitation and lyophilization, powder sericin was obtained.

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Citation Formats
M. Gençtürk, “SERICIN PROTEIN RECOVERY FROM SILK DEGUMMING WASTEWATER IN PILOT SCALE VIA MEMBRANE HYBRID PROCESSES,” M.S. - Master of Science, Middle East Technical University, 2021.