Progress 09/01/06 to 08/31/09
Outputs
OUTPUTS: This project developed new processing technologies that underpin second-generation biorefineries using soybeans in addition to corn as feedstock to replace petroleum by producing biofuels (biodiesel and bioethanol) and biobased products (adhesives). We accomplished significant advances by using a water- and enzyme-based approach known as Enzyme-assisted Aqueous Extraction Processing (EAEP) that replaces a hazardous and polluting petroleum-based solvents. At the same time, the project sought to break the dogma of food verses fuel by producing improved and healthy food and feed ingredients as biorefinery co-products. These goals could not be achieved without strong partnerships with key industries such as enzyme manufacturers, soybean processors and users of biobased products. Therefore, we established partnerships with Genencor International (enzyme manufacturer), West Central Cooperative (soybean processor), and Arclin (wood adhesives manufacturer). ISU faculty regularly met with our industry partners to evaluate progress and priorities and develop research strategies. We demonstrated our hydrolyzed protein product performed well in wood adhesives. Arclin is tailoring the soy adhesive for their customers and are testing soy wood adhesives in various commercial applications to produce safe, environmentally friendly and biorenewable adhesives. We acquired additional funding from the United Soybean Board to assist West Central Cooperative produce the hydrolyzed soy protein and we assisted them in developing their own pilot-plant process to make the hydrolyzed protein. Genencor filed on our behalf for patent rights in the United States and selected foreign countries for our invention of methods to break troublesome soy protein/oil emulsions that enable us to separate free oil from protein and water. We demonstrated at pilot-plant scale the entire process to Genencor's engineering staff so they could fully understand the process and nuances of key steps and operating parameters. From those trials we obtained mass balance and yield data and we produced samples of the aqueous process fractions for evaluation in various applications. Genencor is currently working with a commercial soybean processor on scale-up and commercial implementation of the full aqueous process. Genencor made 15 presentations to companies interested in adopting the process technologies and one at an international scientific conference. Genencor conducted internal evaluations of the high-protein skim fraction in high-value human and animal nutrition applications and submitted samples to external companies for evaluation. ISU faculty published 13 peer-reviewed articles in scientific journals and made 16 presentations at scientific conferences. We presented our results at public forums, such as the dedication of the ISU BioCentury Research Farm and the ISU Presidential Lecture Series. We graduated 3 MS and 1 PhD students and 1 more MS and 1 PhD students are in training who work(ed) on the project. We also trained 7 postdoctoral research associates. Our work received the Team Research Excellence by the ISU College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. PARTICIPANTS: Individuals (Principle Investigators): Lawrence A. Johnson, Project Director, Professor, Food Science & Human Nutrition (FSHN), responsible for identifying mechanical and thermal processes that improve the extraction of oil and protein; Charles E. Glatz, Professor, Chemical & Biological Engineering (CBE), responsible for protein purification and demulsifying the oil-rich cream; Stephanie Jung, Assistant Professor, FSHN, responsible for high-pressure processing and demulsifying the oil-rich cream; Patricia A. Murphy, University Professor, FSHN, responsible for oleosome extraction; Deland Myers, Professor, School of Food Systems, North Dakota State University (formerly FSHN, Iowa State University), responsible for using hydrolyzed soy protein in wood adhesives; Cheryll Reitmeier, Professor, FSHN, responsible for sensory properties of protein fractions; Michael Spurlock, Professor, FSHN and Animal Science; and Tong Wang, Associate Professor, FSHN, responsible for evaluating hydrolyzed soy protein as feed ingredients. The following Iowa State University staff worked on the project: Yilin Bian, Research Associate; Catherine Hauck, Research Associate; Richard Faris, Research Technician. The following graduate students and post-doctoral research associates received training experiences by working on the project: Ramon Morales-Charbrand, completed M.S., CBE; Kerry Campbell, PhD Candidate, CBE; John Schmitz, completed PhD, FSHN; Shiu-Li Lock, completed M.S., FSHN; Heidi Geisenhoff, completed M.S., FSHN; Yating Ma, MS Student, FSHN; Hui Wang, Post-doctoral Research Associate; Juliana M.L. Nobrega de Moura, Post-doctoral Research Associate; Neiva de Almeida, Visiting Research Associate; Jianping Wu, Post-doctoral Research Associate; Abdullah Mahfuz, Post-doctoral Research Associate; Virginie Kapchie, Post-doctoral Research Associate; and Lili Towa, Post-doctoral Research Associate. Collaborators and Contacts: The team collaborated with the international enzyme manufacturer Genencor International (Rochester, NY) and several key Genencor International researchers contributed to the project's success, including Chris Penet, Peter Birschbach, and Jeff Gerstner. The team collaborated with West Central Cooperative (Ralston, IA) to adopt and commercially produce one of the soy protein products for use in wood adhesives with key individuals being Milan Kucerak and Scott Wernimont. The team also collaborated with Arclin (Mississaugua, Ontario), a major manufacturer of wood adhesives with key individuals being Mark Anderson. TARGET AUDIENCES: Target audiences include: soybean farmers and soybean growers' associations, such as the American Soybean Association and the United Soybean Board; Feed Grains Council; wood composite industry, such as Georgia Pacific; soybean processing industry, such the National Oilseed Processors Association; adhesive compounding industry such as Arclin; and enzyme manufacturers. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Professor Timothy Stahly, Animal Science, who was originally responsible for using enzymes in EAEP to enhance feed values of soy protein, passed away unexpectedly. The work plan was picked up by Tong Wang, Associate Professor, Food Science & Human Nutrition, and Michael Spurlock, Associate Professor, Food Science & Human Nutrition.
Impacts
Water-based enzyme-assisted aqueous extraction processing (EAEP) of soybeans offers alternatives to traditional hexane extraction to produce oil for food and biofuel and should integrate well as the front-end of advanced biorefineries. Hexane is a regulated pollutant and compliance with new emission standards is increasingly difficult. Hexane is also highly flammable posing major safety concerns. EAEP is inherently safe, may require less capital and may be suitable for local small-scale plants. EAEP may also integrate well into biodiesel and corn ethanol production. The project results should lead to products with improved performance properties in food, feed and bioadhesives. We achieved 97 percent oil extraction from soybeans using 2-stage extraction with one-half the normal water. We were able to break the highly stable cream emulsion to recover free oil by simply using the same enzyme used in extraction. We discovered that inactivating the enzyme between extraction stages produced a protein mixture containing one-third native state and two-thirds partially hydrolyzed giving rise to unique protein products. We discovered extruding into water was unnecessary, thereby eliminating a cumbersome step. In collaboration with a commercial extruder company, we identified optimum extrusion parameters to maximize free oil yield and enable efficient downstream separation. We scaled-up both two-stage countercurrent EAEP in the pilot plant and achieved excellent extraction yields. We evaluated strategies to produce high-protein feed and determined the potential of the skim fraction as food. Membrane filtration produced protein with greatly reduced anti-nutritional factors that could be spray-dried. Soy protein must have acceptable taste to be used as a food ingredient and we discovered a small molecular weight (1-5 kDa) fraction of protease-modified hydrolysate was a bitter factor. Hydrolyzing soy sugars with a-galactosidase increased sweetness and decreased bitterness. We discovered that treating EAEP proteins with a reducing agent improved broiler chick growth. We discovered an entirely new EAEP process wherein oil was recovered as natural oil bodies (oleosomes) as opposed to free oil, making possible unique food, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical delivery systems; an enzyme mixture was better in extracting oleosomes than one enzyme; and the protein was similar to traditional soy protein isolate. We discovered hydrolyzed soy protein was compatible with non-phenol formaldehyde adhesive resins. Polyamide epichlorohydrin can be used in soy protein adhesives as a crosslinker and achieved similar performance to phenol-formaldehyde/soy resins. Our first-generation, phenol-formaldehyde-reduced soy protein adhesive is being adopted by the wood product industry to reduce costs, replace petroleum-derived materials, and eliminate formaldehyde exposure (cancer promoting) to workers. We demonstrated the soy protein adhesives in commercial settings and our new formula has eliminated sticking in presses. The economic analysis of the current "best practice" process has guided identification of critical tasks for process improvement, namely capture of protein components.
Publications
- Morales-Chabrand, R., H.-J. Kim, C. Zhang, C. E. Glatz, S. Jung. 2008. Destabilization of the Emulsion Formed during Aqueous Extraction of Soybean Oil. J. Am. Oil Chem. Soc. 85:383-390.
- Kapchie, V., D. Wei, C. Hauck, and P.A. Murphy. 2008. Enzyme-Assisted Aqueous Extraction of Oleosomes from Soybeans (Glycine max). J. Agric. Food Chem. 56:1766.
- Faris, R., H. Wang, and T. Wang. 2008. Improving Digestibility of Soy Flour by Reducing Disulfide Bonds with Thioredoxin. J. Agric. Food Chem. 56:7146-7150.
- Lamsal, B.P., Jung, S., and Johnson, L.A. 2007. Rheological properties of soy protein hydrolysates obtained from limited enzymatic hydrolysis. LWT-Food Sci. Tech. 40:1215-1223.
- Nobrega de Moura, J.M.L, and L.A. Johnson. 2008. Two-stage Countercurrent Enzyme-assisted Aqueous Extraction of Oil and Protein from Soybeans. J. Am. Oil Chem. Soc. 86(3):283-289.
- Morales-Charbrand, R., and C.E. Glatz. 2009. Destabilization of the Emulsion Formed During the Enzyme-assisted Aqueous Extraction of Oil from Soybean Flour. Enzyme Microb. Technol. 45:28-35.
- Lamsal, B.P., and Johnson, L.A. 2007. Separating oil from aqueous extraction fractions of soybeans. J. Am. Oil Chem. Soc. 85(8):785-792.
- Jung, S., D. Maurer, and L.A. Johnson. 2009. Factors Affecting Emulsion Stability and Quality of Oil Recovered from Enzyme-assisted Aqueous Extraction of Soybeans. Bioresource. Tech. 100:5340-5347.
- Nobrega de Moura, J.M.L, K. Campbell, A. Mahfuz, S. Jung, C.E. Glatz, and L.A. Johnson. 2008. Enzyme-assisted Aqueous Extraction of Soybeans and Cream De-emulsification. J. Am. Oil Chem. Soc. 85(10):985-995.
- Lamsal, B., L. Johnson, C. Zhang, C. Glatz, J. Wang, and S. Jung. 2007. Enzyme-assisted De-emulsification of Aqueous Lipid Extracts. U.S. provisional patent application filed Nov. 22, 2006; full patent filed Nov. 22, 2007.
- Jung, S., and A. Mahfuz. 2009. Low-temperature Dry Extrusion and High-pressure Processing Prior to Enzyme-assisted Aqueous Extraction of Full-fat Soybean Flakes. Food Chem. 114:947-954.
- Wu, J., L.A. Johnson, and S. Jung. 2009. Demulsification of Oil-rich Emulsion from Enzyme-assisted Aqueous Extraction of Extruded Soybean Flakes. Bioresource Tech. 100:527-533.
- Campbell, K.E., and C.E. Glatz. 2009. Mechanisms of Aqueous Extraction of Soybean Oil. J. Agr. Food Chem. Available on-line at DOI: 10.1021/jf902298a.
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Progress 09/01/07 to 08/31/08
Outputs
OUTPUTS: We improved enzyme-assisted aqueous extraction processing (EAEP) by using two-stage countercurrent EAEP to achieve higher oil and protein extraction yields with half the normal water. Inactivating the enzyme between the second and first extraction stage produced a protein mixture containing one-third protein in its native state and two-thirds partially hydrolyzed. We optimized extrusion conditions and discovered extruding into water is unnecessary. We scaled-up both standard and two-stage countercurrent EAEP to 2 kg soybeans in the pilot plant. Extraction yields were similar to those achieved in the lab but the oil distribution among the fractions was different. We discovered we could recover oil as natural oil bodies (oleosomes) as opposed to free oil. We discovered an enzyme mixture was better in extracting oleosomes than one enzyme and the peptide profile of the extract obtained was similar to a traditional soy protein water extract, indicating very little protein hydrolysis. We identified a procedure to scale-up in the pilot plant for isolating oleosomes and achieved approximately 60% oil recovery. The stability of the oil-rich EAEP cream was unaffected by storing the extruded material before extraction, presence of salt during extraction or presence of free oil during demulsification. We discovered cream stability was enhanced and viscosity increased by high-pressure processing (HPP). Microscopic observations showed that protein precipitates induced by HPP and extrusion entrapped released oil and protease was efficient in releasing oil from these aggregates. Treating the cream with phospholipase at pH 4 completely converted the cream to free oil. Adding methanol was equally effective offering the potential for incorporating EAEP with biodiesel production. We evaluated strategies to produce high-protein feed and determined the potential of the skim milk fraction as a food source. Membrane filtration produced protein that could be spray-dried and had greatly reduced content of anti-nutritional factors. In order for hydrolyzed soy protein to be used as a functional food ingredient it must have acceptable taste. We discovered hydrolyzing soy sugars with a-galactosidase increased sweetness and decreased bitterness of protease-modified soy protein. Proteolysis reduced chalkiness and grittiness of soy protein. Our industry partner adopted our hydrolysis procedure in their processing plant to produce hydrolysate and their potential customer, an adhesives compounder, utilize the product in adhesives. The low solids content of our protein hydrolysates has limited use in adhesives, but we were able to increase the solids from 20 to 28% by selecting an improved reactor. The hydrolysate was compatible with non-phenol formaldehyde resins. Poly(amine-epichlorohydrin) (PAE) can be used in soy adhesive systems as the primary reactant (PAE 80%, soy 20%) or as a crosslinker. We discovered that chemical treatment of EAEP proteins with a reducing agent improved growth parameters in broiler chicks. Additionally, pancreatic hypertrophy, a clinical sign of active protease inhibitors in broilers fed improperly processed soybean protein, was markedly reduced. PARTICIPANTS: The following Iowa State University faculty (Principal Investigators) worked on the project: Charles E. Glatz, Professor, Chemical & Biological Engineering, responsible for protein purification and demulsifying the oil-rich cream; Lawrence A. Johnson, Professor, Food Science & Human Nutrition, responsible for mechanical treatments to enhance oil extraction and demulsify the oil-rich cream; Stephanie Jung, Assistant Professor, Food Science & Human Nutrition, responsible for high-pressure processing and demulsifying the oil-rich cream; Patricia A. Murphy, University Professor, Food Science & Human Nutrition, responsible for oleosome extraction; Deland Myers, Professor, School of Food Systems, North Dakota State University (formerly Food Science & Human Nutrition, Iowa State University), responsible for using hydrolyzed soy protein in wood adhesives; Cheryll Reitmeier, Professor, Food Science & Human Nutrition, responsible for sensory properties of protein fractions; Michael Spurlock, Professor, Food Science & Human Nutrition and Animal Science, and Tong Wang, Associate Professor, Food Science & Human Nutrition, responsible for evaluating hydrolyzed soy protein as feed ingredients. The following Iowa State University staff worked on the project: Yilin Bian, Research Associate; Catherine Hauck, Research Associate; Richard Faris, Research Technician. The following graduate students and post-doctoral research associates received training experiences by working on the project: Ramon Morales-Charbrand, completed M.S., Chemical & Biological Engineering; Kerry Campbel, PhD Candidate, Chemical & Biological Engineering; John Schmitz, PhD Candidate, Food Science & Human Nutrition; Shiu-Li Lock, completed M.S., Food Science & Human Nutrition; Hui Wang, Post-doctoral Research Associate; Yating Ma, MS Student, Food Science & Human Nutrition; Juliana M.L. Nobrega de Moura, Post-doctoral Research Associate; Nieve de Almieda, Visiting Research Associate; Jianping Wu, Post-doctoral Research Associate; Abdullah Mahfuz, Post-doctoral Research Associate; Virginie Kapchie, Post-doctoral Research Associate; Lili Towa, Post-doctoral Research Associate. The team collaborated with the international enzyme manufacturer Genencor International (Rochester, NY) and several key Genencor International researchers contributed to the project's success, including Chris Penet, Peter Birschbach, and Jeff Gerstner. The team also collaborated with West Central Cooperative (Ralston, IA) to adopt and commercially produce one of the soy protein products for use in wood adhesives. Key West Central Cooperative employees include Milan Kucerak and Scott Wernimont. TARGET AUDIENCES: Target audiences include: soybean farmers and soybean grower's associations, such as the American Soybean Association and the United Soybean Board; Feed Grains Council; wood composite industry, such as Georgia Pacific; soybean processing industry, such the National Oilseed Processors Association; adhesive compounding industry such as Arclin; and enzyme manufacturers. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
Traditional oil extraction with organic solvents use 6-7 stages to reduce solvent usage, but only one stage has ever been used with EAEP. Two-stage countercurrent EAEP reduced water use by one-half and improved oil and protein extraction yields. The water reduction represents an important energy savings in recovering protein and carbohydrates of the dilute skim fraction and makes developing products for this fraction easier. Scaling-up two-stage countercurrent EAEP demonstrated with high probability that EAEP can be successfully applied at industrial scale. Our oleosome fractionation process fits into the soy protein isolate technology used by the food industry. Undenatured soy protein can be recovered from the aqueous supernatant in addition to isolating the oleosome fraction. Scale-up results indicate our unique process is likely feasible to do at industrial scale but we identified ways the process can be improved. Oleosomes are intriguing food and drug delivery systems. Our improved understanding of parameters affecting emulsion stability for the oil-rich cream produced with EAEP will contribute to identifying improved demulsification strategies that can be applied to EAEP of oilseeds. The enhanced cream stability due to HPP is potentially a major advantage to using the cream as food ingredients and understanding the cream characteristics should lead to new applications. Since methanol is reacted with soy oil to produce biodiesel, using methanol for demulsification integrates with biorefining operations and could eliminate refining steps. The absence of anti-nutritional factors in the new protein products offers potential for added value for the economically important protein fraction. Hydrolyzed protein is an important EAEP co-product that will significantly impact process economics. Soy protein hydrolysates have considerable potential to replace or eliminate hazardous and polluting adhesive resin components. Hydrolysate production is possible on large industrial scale and industrial equipment leads to more desirable product characteristics. The use of enzymes also enables tailoring hydrolysate products for use in non-phenol formaldehyde adhesive systems, which broadens the potential applications of protein hydrolysates for adhesive use. Hydrolyzing soy protein improved the quality of the soy protein for broiler chicks. The EAEP soy proteins with minimal heat treatment may be fed to broilers after a practical reducing agent treatment to reduce or rearrange the disulfide bonds thereby reducing activities of the antinutritional factors. Such feasible treatment and improvement in nutritional quality of soy protein renders the AEP concept practical and attractive. Once we understand the mechanism of protein induced hemagglutination and identify practical ways to fully eliminate this activity, the EAEP proteins will become a convenient and nutritionally superior feed ingredient. EAEP is an attractive process to incorporate as the front-end to soybean biorefinery to produce biodiesel, bio-based products, edible oils, enhanced protein ingredients for food and feed, and a lignocellulose-rich fraction that could be converted to fuel ethanol.
Publications
- Morales-Chabrand, R., H.-J. Kim, C. Zhang, C. E. Glatz, S. Jung. 2008. Destabilization of the Emulsion Formed during Aqueous Extraction of Soybean Oil. J. Am. Oil Chem. Soc. 85:383-390.
- Kapchie, V., D. Wei, C. Hauck, and P.A. Murphy. 2008. Enzyme-Assisted Aqueous Extraction of Oleosomes from Soybeans (Glycine max). J. Agric. Food Chem. 56:1766-1771.
- Chabrand, R.M., H.-J Kim, C. Zhang, C.E. Glatz, and S. Jung. 2008. Destabilization of Emulsion Formed during Aqueous Extraction of Soybean Oil. J. Am. Oil Chem. Soc. 85: 383-390.
- Faris, R., H. Wang, and T. Wang. 2008. Improving Digestibility of Soy Flour by Reducing Disulfide Bonds with Thioredoxin. J. Agric. Food Chem. 56:7146-7150.
- Nobrega de Moura, J.M.L, K. Campbell, A. Mahfuz, S. Jung, C.E. Glatz, and L.A. Johnson. 2008. Enzyme-assisted Aqueous Extraction of Soybeans and Cream De-emulsification. J. Am. Oil Chem. Soc. 85(10):985-995.
- Lamsal, B., L. Johnson, C. Zhang, C. Glatz, J. Wang, and S. Jung. 2007. Enzyme-assisted De-emulsification of Aqueous Lipid Extracts. U.S. provisional patent application filed Nov. 22, 2006; full patent filed Nov. 22, 2007.
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Progress 09/01/06 to 08/31/07
Outputs
OUTPUTS: We improved enzyme-assisted aqueous extraction processing (EAEP) to recover oil from soybeans in yields not heretofore achieved and we produced an enzyme-modified soy protein (EMSP) product for use in wood adhesives with enhanced performance. EAEP is a water-based process to replace the industry's current use of hazardous, polluting and expensive petroleum-derived hexane. Chemicals used in wood adhesives are also expensive and hazardous to workers because they are petroleum-derived cancer-promoting. Our most significant findings for EAEP are: 1. we identified a single protease that was effective in both de-emulsifying the cream to recover free oil and extracting oil; 2. we reduced water usage by one-half while maintaining high oil and protein extraction efficiency by using a countercurrent two-stage extraction strategy; 3. we reduced the amount of protease from 1 to 0.5 percent without reducing oil extraction; 4. we discovered we could inactivate the enzyme between
extraction stages enabling us to recover the same amount of oil without hydrolyzing the protein thereby improving the functional properties of the protein for many applications; 5. we successfully scaled-up the cell dismanteling process where we extract intact oleosomes from hydrated crushed soybean from 50-g bench scale to 1-Kg pilot-plant scale; 7. we optimized extraction of intact oleosomes from soy flour using pectinase and cellulases to obtain 88% of total oil and determined this procedure is better than using hydrated soybeans; 8. we determined that procedures to isolate single soybean cells destroy the integrity of the oleosome rendering this aim a dead end; however, free oil (not in oleosomes) can be extracted from these cells; and we enhanced the flavor of hydrolyzed soy protein by hydrolyzing soy sugars. Our most significant findings for EMSP are: 1. we demonstrated that 8% degree of hydrolysis gives the best adhesive performance; 2. we demonstrated that a combination of an
endopeptidase, a cellulase and a beta-glucanase gives enhanced performance; 3. we developed a partnership with Arclin, an adhesives compounder, to test our wood adhesive in various commercial applications; and 4. we acquired additional funding from the United Soybean Board to assist a farmer-owned soybean crusher produce the hydrolyzed soy protein. We presented this year's results at the annual meeting of the American Oil Chemists Society, which generated a lot of interest. A major equipment manufacturer is discussing with us about how they can become partners and provide equipment for this new soybean processing technology. Our other partner, Genencor International, is a world leader in enzymes and enzyme technologies, and manufactures enzymes that are key to making the soy adhesive and the EAEP process work. They have provided us with access to their enzyme library and have supplied enzymes for testing. We hold semi-annual progress reviews with Genencor International to keep them
abreast of all scientific discoveries and commercialization opportunities. They have met with others in the oilseeds processing industry to develop commercial interest in the process and to identify potential roadblocks.
PARTICIPANTS: Individuals (Principle Investigators): Lawrence A. Johnson, Project Director, Professor, Food Science & Human Nutrition, responsible for identifying mechanical and thermal processes that improve the extraction of oil and protein; Deland Myers, Professor, Food Science & Human Nutrition, responsible for optimizing enzyme hydrolysis of soy protein for use as an industrial adhesive in wood products, and working with West Central Cooperative to commercialize the technology; Charles E. Glatz, Professor, Chemical and Biological Engineering, responsible for work on understanding why yield improvement(s) are observed; Stephanie Jung, Assistant Professor, Food Science & Human Nutrition, responsible for selecting appropriate mechanical, thermal and physical strategies to de-emulsify the protein-oil emulsions; Patricia A. Murphy, Professor, Food Science & Human Nutrition, responsible for optimizing the sequential cell dismantling process; Cheryll Reitmeier, Professor, Food Science
& Human Nutrition, responsible for evaluating flavor properties of hydrolyzed soy protein; Tong Wang, Associate Professor, Food Science & Human Nutrition, and Michael Spurlock, Associate Professor, Food Science & Human Nutrition, jointly responsible for evaluating strategies to produce high-protein feed materials with greater biological value as a source of digestible nutrients and health enhancing molecules for monogastric animals. Collaborators and Contacts: Chris Penet, Genencor International; Peter Birschbach, Genencor. International Training and Professional Development: Buddhi Lamsal, Post-Doctorate Research Associate, Food Science & Human Nutrition; Juliana Nobrega, Post-Doctorate Research Associate, Food Science & Human Nutrition; Hui Wang, Post-Doctorate Research Associate, Food Science & Human Nutrition; Richard Faris, Technician, Animal Science Kerry Campbell, Graduate Research Assistant, Chemical and Biological Engineering; Ramon Morales-Charbrand, Graduate Research
Assistant, Chemical and Biological Engineering; Virginie Kapchie, Post-Doctorate Research Associate, Food Science & Human Nutrition; Sheue-Lei Lock, graduate student, Food Science & Human Nutrition.
TARGET AUDIENCES: The soybean processing industry, such as the National Oilseed Processing Association. Soybean commodity boards, such as the United Soybean Board, the American Soybean Association, and the Iowa Soybean Promotion Board.
PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Professor Timothy Stahly, Animal Science, who was originally responsible for using enzymes in EAEP to enhance feed values of soy protein, passed away unexpectedly. The work plan was picked up by Tong Wang, Associate Professor, Food Science & Human Nutrition, and Michael Spurlock, Associate Professor, Food Science & Human Nutrition.
Impacts
Water-based enzyme-assisted aqueous extraction processing (EAEP) of soybeans offers alternatives to traditional hexane extraction to produce oil for food and biofuel production. Hexane is a regulated pollutant and compliance with new emission standards is becoming increasingly difficult and expensive. Hexane is also highly flammable and safety is a major issue due to frequent fires and explosions in processing plants. EAEP may also enable new opportunities to add value to oil and meal products and may also provide a basis for establishing biorefining technologies for soybeans to convert soybeans into biofuels and value-added biobased products. EAEP may be less costly and require less capital investment than conventional oil extraction with hexane and may be suitable for localized small-scale operations. This process may integrate extremely well into biodiesel production and/or identity-preserved processing of specialty soybeans with value-added traits for end-users.
Understanding of oil emulsion stability/de-emulsification phenomenon will help not only EAEP soybean processing, but other oil processes that are faced with similar emulsion problems. The results of this project should lead to improved performance properties in food, feed and adhesive applications as well as improved extraction efficiency in processing soybeans into value-added protein ingredients. We discovered how to achieve over 90 percent oil extraction from soybeans using water-based EAEP and how to break the highly stable cream emulsion to recover all of the oil in the cream as free oil using enzymes. These advances will lead to new, lower cost soybean products and allow food processors to produce improved soybean ingredients that have not been exposed to organic solvents about which consumers are becoming increasingly concerned about. We have perfected a new soy protein co-product that can be used in wood adhesives. The first-generation, phenol/formaldehyde-reduced, soy protein
adhesive developed on this project is ready to be transferred to the soybean industry and to be adopted by the wood products industry. The wood products industry is looking for technologies that reduce costs, replace traditional petroleum-derived materials, and provide less formaldehyde exposure (potentially cancer promoting) to workers. We are working with a major farmer-owned soybean processor to adopt the protein processing technology and with a major wood adhesives manufacturer to produce these new, safer and biorenewable adhesives. Our soy protein technologies offer similar potential advantages in other wood adhesive formulations and products.
Publications
- Lamsal, B.P., Jung, S., and Johnson, L.A. 2007. Rheological properties of soy protein hydrolysates obtained from limited enzymatic hydrolysis. LWT-Food Sci. Tech. 40:1215-1223.
- Lamsal, B.P., and Johnson, L.A. 2007. Separating oil from aqueous extraction fractions of soybeans. J. Am. Oil Chem. Soc. 85(8):785-792.
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