Continuous separation of casein hydrolysate using vortex flow filtration system

Abstract

Acid casein was hydrolyzed by protease M from Amano Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. in a continuous Vortex Flow Filtration System. Permeate was composed of many peptides having molecular weight of 300-600 regardless of operating time and the concentration ratio of substrate to enzyme (S/E). For the reaction in this system following the Michaelis-Menten's Model, we obtained Michaelis constant of 2.94% and maximum reaction rate of 33.56%-h-1. Permeate flux increased with filtration pressure. However, a continuous reduction in the flux was observed throughout the high pressure run. High substrate conversion of 0.85 was obtained by low pressure, namely low permeate flux, of 35 kPa. This system yielded the maximum permeate flux, when operated under S/E = 3.00%/1.00% and Taylor number of 678 at 1 500 rpm. High productivity was obtained under S/E = 3.00%/0.25%.