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Continuous production of pectic oligosaccharides from sugar beet pulp in a cross flow continuous enzyme membrane reactor

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Abstract

Sugar beet pulp pectin is an attractive source for the production of pectic oligosaccharides, an emerging class of potential prebiotics. The main aim of the present work was to investigate a new process allowing to produce pectic oligosaccharides in a continuous way by means of a cross flow enzyme membrane reactor while using a low-cost crude enzyme mixture (viscozyme). Preliminary experiments in batch and semi-continuous setups allowed to identify suitable enzyme concentrations and assessing filtration suitability. Then, in continuous experiments in the enzyme membrane reactor, residence time and substrate loading were further optimized. The composition of the obtained oligosaccharide mixtures was assessed at the molecular level for the most promising conditions and was shown to be dominated by condition-specific arabinans, rhamnogalacturonans, and galacturonans. A continuous and stable production was performed for 28.5 h at the optimized conditions, obtaining an average pectic oligosaccharide yield of 82.9 ± 9.9% (w/w), a volumetric productivity of 17.5 ± 2.1 g/L/h, and a specific productivity of 8.0 ± 1.0 g/g E/h. This work demonstrated for the first time the continuous and stable production of oligosaccharide mixtures from sugar beet pulp using enzyme membrane reactor technology in a setup suitable for upscaling.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge IGV GmbH (Potsdam, Germany) for providing the sugar beet pulp raw material. Neha Babbar gratefully acknowledges the PhD scholarship Grant from VITO (Mol, Belgium) and University of Parma (Parma, Italy).

Funding

This study was funded by the European commission (FP7, NOSHAN, Grant agreement 312140).

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Author notes

  1. Kathy Elst and Neha Babbar equally contributed to the first authorship.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Separation and Conversion Technology, VITO-Flemish Institute for Technological Research, Boeretang 200, 2400, Mol, Belgium

    Kathy Elst, Neha Babbar, Sandra Van Roy, Winnie Dejonghe & Miranda Maesen

  2. Department of Food and Drug, University of Parma, Parco Area delle Scienze 59a, University Campus, 43124, Parma, Italy

    Neha Babbar, Stefania Baldassarre & Stefano Sforza

Authors
  1. Kathy Elst
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  2. Neha Babbar
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  3. Sandra Van Roy
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  5. Winnie Dejonghe
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Correspondence to Kathy Elst.

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Elst, K., Babbar, N., Van Roy, S. et al. Continuous production of pectic oligosaccharides from sugar beet pulp in a cross flow continuous enzyme membrane reactor. Bioprocess Biosyst Eng 41, 1717–1729 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-018-1995-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-018-1995-z

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