Microfiltration-mediated extraction of dextran produced by Leuconostoc mesenteroides SF3

Abstract Recently, the production of metabolites from fermentation broths has been of great importance due to microorganisms are able to produce a wide variety of products and by-products; however, one of the challenging tasks is the extraction of such metabolites. The extraction with organic solvents is likely the most used methodology to recover the metabolites from the fermentation broths; which has been criticized according to the negative effect of using solvents on the environment. In this sense, physical separation methods, like membrane processes, have started to be involved in such recovery task. Thereby, we propose a membrane technology (i.e., microfiltration (MF)) for the separation of dextran produced by Leuconostoc mesenteroides SF3. Herein, a comparison between dextrans extracted with solvent extraction (i.e., ethanol) and integrated MF system is presented. The results revealed that the membrane process modified some of the physicochemical (e.g., hygroscopicity, solubility, water absorption capacity, and porosity) and morphological characteristics of the dextran. In addition, the MF process displayed a 33.5% dextran extraction yield with a saving of 75% in ethanol consumption for dextran precipitation.