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Herein, the effective use of aqueous biphasic systems (ABS) in Fast Centrifugal Partition Chromatography (FCPC) for the purification of PEGylated cytochrome c conjugates is shown. High recoveries (between 88% and 100%) and purities (∼100%) were obtained. Both the unreacted cytochrome c and solvents may be recovered and reused, thus allowing the design of a sustainable process in a continuous regime for the isolation of bioconjugates. This process allowed the reduction of the complete E-factor and carbon footprint at circa 100% and 67%, respectively, reinforcing the important environmental contribution of recycling units. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

R-phycoerythrin is a high added-value protein found in red macroalgae with several interesting properties. Despite the promising results found when R-phycoerythrin is used as an optically active center in luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs), it still has some problems that can be attributed to the low stability of the R-phycoerythrin in the presence of the specific contaminant proteins found in the crude extract. The development of downstream strategies able to reduce the use of environmentally hazardous solvents, while improving the purification without compromising the R-phycoerythrin structural integrity is still the biggest challenge to overcome. Aqueous micellar two-phase systems (AMTPS) appear as an appealing fractionation approach since they allow the processing of systems with larger water contents, while displaying great selectivity and biocompatibility with several biomolecules. Moroever, AMTPS that mix surfactants and surface-active ionic liquids are shown to significantly enhance protein purification. In this work, mixed AMTPS were applied to the R-phycoerythrin purification from red macroalgae. After the process optimization, this work proposes the application of two consecutive steps of purification as the final process to isolate R-phycoerythrin from the remaining proteins composing the crude extract, while maintaining the structural integrity of R-phycoerythrin, as requested to be used in the LSC. Besides a good performance, the two-step approach developed was also shown to have a lower environmental impact with a carbon footprint decrease of 16%, when compared with the conventional AMTPS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, one of the biggest challenges for society is the development of appropriate technologies to process the waste residue produced worldwide. In the food sector, the generated waste is estimated to be nearly billions of tons annually. Brazil is one of the most representative examples of the economic and industrial potential of underexplored residues and raw materials. The palm heart, scientifically known as Bactris gasipaes, mainly its fruits, is one of the many examples found in Brazilian flora. The fruits have significant amounts of carotenoids, namely, the all-trans-β-carotene, all-trans-lycopene and the rare all-trans-γ-carotene, which are considered as excellent raw materials of commercial interest. However, the main challenge that remains is their efficient recovery. This work proposes the development of a performant process of extraction mediated by the use of ionic liquid (IL)-based ethanolic solutions. Four ILs were examined, as well as the solid–liquid ratio R(S/L), number of extractions, the time of extraction, the co-solvent-ratio R(IL/E) and the homogenization method employed. After selecting the best solvent ([C4mim][BF4]) and process conditions (extraction yield of 172 ± 18 μgcarotenoids gdried biomass−1), the IL-ethanolic solution recyclability was tested by freezing/precipitating the IL (maximum of 94% of IL recovered), proving its success for at least 10 cycles while decreasing the process carbon footprint by 50% compared with the conventional method using acetone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]