Effect of operating condition on the properties of ectoine particles for improving the purification process

Ectoine, which is produced from methane by methane-oxidizing bacteria, has attracted attention because of its many useful functions in living organisms. It is known that the purification process using alcohol-based solvents is a limiting step in the ectoine production process because of the precipitation of fine particles. This study investigated quantitatively the effects of operating conditions (cooling rate and solvent) on the properties of ectoine particles for improving the efficiency of the ectoine purification process. The experimental results showed that the properties of ectoine particles were significantly influenced by operating condition such as the cooling rate and solvent of feed solution. Furthermore, it was revealed that the critical supersaturation ratio at the nucleation using methanol was approximately ten times higher than using water. Consequently, it was found that the high critical supersaturation ratio at the nucleation induces the precipitation the fine particles that have high filtration resistance. In conclusion, we succeeded in finding the relationship between the operating conditions and properties of ectoine particles.