Process Intensification via Continuous and Simultaneous Isolation of Antioxidants: An Upcycling Approach for Olive Leaf Waste

Abstract

Isolation of individual pharmaceutical-grade bioactive compounds from complex plant extracts is still a sustainability challenge. Process intensification improves manufacturing design to achieve significant benefits in process efficiency and operation, product quality, and waste management. A process optimization and intensification methodology for the simultaneous isolation of biophenols from agricultural waste using imprinted materials and nanofiltration membranes is reported herein. First, temperature-swing molecular imprinting technology was used to selectively extract individual biophenols from olive leaf extracts.Second, solvent-resistant nanofiltration was used to in line concentrate the product and waste streams as well as recover the solvent. The predictive mathematical models for the adsorption dynamics and the membrane separation resulted in a significant reduction in the carbon footprint, E factor and economic sustainability. The process was designed for easy operation with multi-way valves to aid safety and reduce operating costs. The presented process intensification methodology can be generally exploited for waste upcycling through sustainable isolation of multiple high-value products from complex mixtures.

Characterization of Orange Peel Waste and Valorization to Obtain Reducing Sugars

“…In recent years, food waste valorization acquired significantly importance, whether animal or vegetable. In the case of agro-industrial waste, olive leaves have been proven to be precursors of value-added chemical compounds such as phenols [ 10 ]. Regarding organic food waste, chemical–biological treatments are used to produce hydrogen, biogas and reagents in the form of acetic acid, propionic acid and butyric acid [ 11 ].…”

Assessment of Conventional Solvent Extraction vs. Supercritical Fluid Extraction of Khella (Ammi visnaga L.) Furanochromones and Their Cytotoxicity

“…Several green techniques have been recently implicated for natural product extraction to achieve industrial sustainability. These include, for example, molecular imprinting technology, solvent-resistant nanofiltration, deep eutectic solvent-based microwave-assisted extraction and supercritical fluid extraction [ 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 ]. Supercritical fluid extraction (SCFE), especially with carbon dioxide, has been recently applied in different fields; including natural products, metal cation extraction, polymer synthesis and particle nucleation [ 23 , 24 , 25 ].…”

Microsphere Polymers in Molecular Imprinting: Current and Future Perspectives

“…MIPs have been developed in various application areas of biology and chemistry, such as in selective separation and sample preparation [ 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 ], nanocomposite materials [ 13 ], biological assays [ 14 , 15 , 16 ], catalysis [ 17 ], drug delivery [ 18 , 19 ], sensors [ 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 ], bioimaging and optical devices [ 24 ], food safety and environmental applications [ 25 , 26 ], enantioseparation [ 27 , 28 ], natural product extraction [ 29 , 30 ] and rare element purification [ 31 ]. MIPs can be obtained by various methods, including bulk polymerisation, precipitation polymerisation [ 32 , 33 ], suspension polymerisation, emulsion polymerisation, two-step swelling polymerisation [ 34 ], electropolymerisation [ 35 ], electrospinning [ 36 ], sol-gel imprinting [ 37 ] and phase inversion [ 38 ].…”