Application of ion exchanger in the separation of whey proteins and lactin from milk whey

Abstract

Whey disposal represents a huge obstacle for dairy industry, being costly and problematic. On the other hand, it could be used as a starting material for isolation of some components that are valuable on the market. Whey processing is not an easy operation; it requires robust techniques of high volumetric throughput with minimal pretreatment of the starting material. For this purpose, ion exchangers can be used, due to their versatility, safety, and relative cheapness. Being a mixture of acidic and basic proteins, double-step ion exchange chromatography, involving both cation and anion exchangers, must be performed to obtain highly purified whey proteins. Development of new technologies, based on ion exchange, which can provide fast and efficient whey processing, provides maximal exploitation in environmentally safe way. In this chapter, the literature review on the usage of ion exchangers in the separation of lactin from bovine whey proteins and fractionation of bovine whey proteins will be given.