Characterisation of proteinaceous material in selected food processing wastewater

• Main Author: Tan, Ee Tang
• Other Authors: Zhou Yan
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2021
• Subjects: Engineering::Environmental engineering::Water treatment
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/149131
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

One of the many resources that can be valorised from food processing wastewater (FPWW) is proteinaceous material. However, the incredibly broad array and complex nature of proteinaceous material that is present in the aliquot have made it difficult to characterize and determine the specific components. In this study, the characterisation of the proteinaceous material in the FPWW collected from Mr Bean and the Asia Pacific Breweries through using both basic analytical techniques and advanced spectroscopic methods are addressed. Various analytical strategies, such as ‘total nitrogen analyser (TN)’, ‘carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and sulphur analyser (CHNS)’, ‘liquid chromatography – organic carbon detection – organic nitrogen detection (LC-OCD-OND)’, ‘liquid chromatography – mass spectrometry (LCMS)’ and ‘colorimetric protein assay kits’, that would be suitable for determining the concentration of proteinaceous matter in wastewater samples have been compared and evaluated. Results have proven that analytical methods such as TN, CHNS and LC-OCD-OND are inconclusive to be a good representation of proteinaceous concentration in the wastewater samples. Using the interclass correlation coefficient, a comparison of eleven protein assay methods with 24 different heterogenous proteinaceous samples shown that the ‘Micro BCA with Protein Precipitation’ method proceeds excellent reliability. It was then used to estimate the concentration of the protein in the wastewater and compared with amino acid analysis using LCMS, although the latter method is a better analytical method in both characterising and quantifying the proteinaceous material in the FPWW.