Development and statistical optimization of a tribo-electrification separation process for dry fractionation of yellow pea flour

Abstract

An eco-friendly dry tribo-electrostatic separation technique has been investigated to produce native plant-based protein concentrates from yellow pea flour using a lab-scale tribo-electrostatic separator. In this approach, a mixed-level full factorial (32 × 22) experiment was designed to evaluate the influence of process parameters on the protein content and protein separation efficiency of the resulted protein-enriched product. A multiple linear regression model was used to analyze the data along with optimizing the process with the objective of maximizing the protein separation efficiency while reaching a protein content of at least 57%. Air flow rate, milling type (Pin and Ferkar), and milling intensity were found to have statistically significant impacts on the protein content while only plate voltage had an impact on protein separation efficiency. Although plate voltage and air flow rate had no impact on the response variables, the interactions of plate voltage with milling intensity and air flow rate with plate voltage were found to be significant. The optimal conditions for air flow rate, plate voltage, milling type, and milling intensity were found to be 7 LPM, -6.5 kV with pin milled flour at the higher milling intensity. It resulted in 57.1% of protein content for the protein-enriched flour. The theoretical predictions had a good agreement with the experimental results. Acknowledgment: The authors acknowledge USDA-NIFA-AFRI (Bioprocessing & Bioengineering) Award#2020-67021-31141 for its support.