VALORIZATION OF PROTEINS IN WHEY WASTE THROUGH ELECTROCHEMICALLY-DRIVEN CONTINUOUS SEPARATIONS FOR SUSTAINABLE DAIRY MANUFACTURING

The overarching goal of the project is to innovate agricultural food manufacturing in the U.S. by developing more efficient technologies for dairy manufacturing, through the recovery and valorization of proteins from whey waste. We propose to develop redox-polymer driven electrodialysis flow cellsto enable multi-component separation of whey proteins and salts for food manufacturing through the rational arrangement of selective membranes and redox-channels. The project pursues an integrated approach between process engineering, systems design, and redox materials synthesis, for the implementation of a novel separation technology in food manufacturing through whey protein recovery and purification. The following objectives will be followed in the current proposal:Objective 1.Investigate various whey waste compositions (e.g., acid, sweet, salty whey) to screen and source whey proteins that are selectively separable for valorization.Objective 2.Develop electrochemically-mediated flow system based on redox electrolyte for continuous and selective salt and protein separation of whey waste stream.Objective 3.Synthesize and engineer green redox polymers to facilitate usage of nanofiltration membranes and minimize crossover and interactions with proteins.Objective 4.Technoeconomic analysis of the redox-ED system and evaluation of the multi-channel system for relevant food manufacturing samples from the dairy industry.