Phospholipid recovery from sweet whey and whey protein concentrate: Use of electrodialysis with bipolar membrane combined with a dilution factor as an ecoefficient method

Abstract Electrodialysis with bipolar membrane (EDBM) is promising to recover phospholipids (PLs) from sweet whey and whey protein concentrate (WPC), as it promotes lipoprotein complex formation following a decrease in pH and ionic strength. The aim of this work was to study the impact of dilution factor (without dilution, with a 2X, 4X and 6X dilution) after EDBM on the process performances. For both products, a 4X dilution, which corresponds to a decrease in ionic strength of 81.4 ± 1.5 % for sweet whey and 79.4 ± 0.4 % for WPC, seemed sufficient to maximize lipoprotein complex formation as a plateau was reached in the defatting rates. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that the process could be used to recover PLs. Higher PL contents were found in the precipitates recovered from sweet whey combined with a dilution: highest contents in total PLs for WPC (7.45 ± 0.49 and 8.00 ± 0.49 g/100g with a 4X-6X dilution) were not different from the lowest content for sweet whey (7.50 ± 1.18 g/100 g without dilution). For both products, the main PLs recovered were phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylserine, which respectively represented between 42.0 ± 1.7 and 51.6 ± 2.3 % and 30.1 ± 2.2 to 38.7 ± 0.8 % of total PLs. Furthermore, considering their high ecoefficiency scores, sweet whey combined with a 2X or 4X dilution are the most promising conditions.