Soleimani Hassanabadi M., Masiello L., Adiletta G., Russo P., Bravi M., 2026, Sustainable Protein Recovery from Acheta Domesticus using a Switchable Composite Extractant, Chemical Engineering Transactions, 124, 31-36.
The extraction of proteins from Acheta domesticus is typically hindered by the energy intensity of solvent recovery and the thermal degradation of functional properties. This work investigates a Switchable Composite Extractant (SCE)—a ternary mixture of ethanol, propylene glycol, and water—designed to decouple product isolation from the enthalpy of vaporization. By exploiting a pH-temperature solubility switch, the process operates entirely within a sensible heat regime (60 °C), offering a theoretical energy reduction of over 70% compared to distillation. Optimization of the extraction-precipitation cycle identified pH 9.0 for solubilization and pH 4.3 for maximum recovery (47.8%), effectively bypassing the viscosity-limited bottlenecks of evaporative concentration. This framework establishes a scalable route for circular bioprocessing at atmospheric pressure.
