Abstract

Hyaluronic acid (HA) dispersion obtained from the bacteria Streptococcus equi was concentrated by electrofiltration. In the conventional downstream processing of HA, extraction and precipitation lead to raise of environmental issues, structural changes, time and energy related costs. Using electrofiltration as an alternative technology delivers solutions to these limitations.

Experiments were conducted in order to test the applicability of electrofiltration to downstream processing of the negatively charged HA. The structural changes and molecular weight distributions, often a consequence of the employed separation method, were tested by analysis of the initial dispersions and final products. In comparison to the conventional filtration concentration factors were increased up to almost 4 times without any detectable structural change of the final product.