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Chromatographic separation of prebiotic oligosaccharides. Case study: separation of galacto-oligosaccharides on a cation exchanger

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Abstract

Chromatographic separation of prebiotic oligosaccharides, galacto-oligosaccharides from a typical post-reaction mixture containing unreacted substrate lactose and by-products glucose and galactose was investigated. A commercial cation-exchange resin Dowex 50WX4 was chosen as a prospective preparative-scale adsorbent and separation performance of its four ionic forms, H+, Na+, K+ and Ca2+, was tested. Since adsorption equilibrium isotherms were linear within the entire investigated range of concentrations, they were determined by pulse experiments for all saccharides present in a typical post reaction mixture including tri- and tetragalacto-oligosaccharides. From the four counter ions listed above, hydrogen offered the best selectivity and column performance. The selected H+-form of the cation exchanger was further investigated by means of frontal analysis where high ionic strength and elevated viscosity appear and can play a substantial role. Breakthrough curves were measured for monosaccharides, lactose, glucose–lactose mixture and a multicomponent commercial mixture of galacto-oligosaccharides, Vivinal® GOS. The breakthrough curves were successfully described by the dispersive plug flow model with linear driving force approximation.

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Abbreviations

C 0,i :

Equilibrium liquid phase concentration component i (kg m−3)

D a :

Axial dispersion coefficient (m2 s−1)

D m,i :

Molecular diffusivity (m2 s−1)

F :

Solid-liquid phase ratio (–)

k h,i :

Mass transfer coefficients for the homogeneous particle (s−1)

K i :

Adsorption equilibrium constant of component i (–)

L :

Bed length (m)

N i :

Plate number of component i (–)

Pe :

Peclet number (–)

Q :

Volumetric flow rate (m3 s−1)

\( \bar{q}_{i} \) :

Average adsorbed solid-phase concentrations of the component i (kg m−3)

\( q_{i}^{*} \) :

Equilibrium solid phase concentration

R p :

Particle radius (m)

t R :

Retention time (first statistical moment of peak) (s)

t 0 :

Retention time of unretained tracer (s)

u int :

Interstitial velocity (m s−1)

V C :

Bed volume (m3)

z :

Axial coordinate (m)

α:

Selectivity (–)

ε:

Bed voidage (–)

σ2 :

Variance (s2)

τ:

Tortuosity (–)

Gal:

Galactose

Glc:

Glucose

Lac:

Lactose

GOS3:

Galactotriose

GOS4:

Galactotetraose

GOS5:

Galactopentaose

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like kindly thank to FrieslandCampina for providing the Vivinal® GOS syrup. Carla Pereira gratefully acknowledges financial support from Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Postdoctoral Research Fellowship SFRH/BPD/71358/2010. The Slovak side was partly supported by the grant of Slovak Agency for Science (VEGA 1/0531/13).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Faculty of Chemical and Food Technology, Institute of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Slovak University of Technology, Radlinského 9, 812 37, Bratislava, Slovakia

    Łukasz Wiśniewski & Milan Polakovič

  2. Laboratory of Separation and Reaction Engineering (LSRE), Associate Laboratory, Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias s/n, 4200-465, Porto, Portugal

    Łukasz Wiśniewski, Carla S. M. Pereira & Alírio E. Rodrigues

Authors
  1. Łukasz Wiśniewski
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  2. Carla S. M. Pereira
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  3. Milan Polakovič
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  4. Alírio E. Rodrigues
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Correspondence to Alírio E. Rodrigues.

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Wiśniewski, Ł., Pereira, C.S.M., Polakovič, M. et al. Chromatographic separation of prebiotic oligosaccharides. Case study: separation of galacto-oligosaccharides on a cation exchanger. Adsorption 20, 483–492 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10450-013-9587-3

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