PEG-salt aqueous two-phase systems: an attractive and versatile liquid-liquid extraction technology for the downstream processing of proteins and enzymes.

Nowadays, there is an increasing demand to establish new feasible, efficient downstream processing (DSP) techniques in biotechnology and related fields. Although several conventional DSP technologies have been widely employed, they are usually expensive and time-consuming and often provide only low recovery yields. Hence, the DSP is one major bottleneck for the commercialization of biological products. In this context, polyethylene glycol (PEG)-salt aqueous two-phase systems (ATPS) represent a promising, efficient liquid-liquid extraction technology for the DSP of various biomolecules, such as proteins and enzymes. Furthermore, ATPS can overcome the limitations of traditional DSP techniques and have gained importance for applications in several fields of biotechnology due to versatile advantages over conventional DSP methods, such as biocompatibility, technical simplicity, and easy scale-up potential. In the present review, various practical applications of PEG-salt ATPS are presented to highlight their feasibility to operate as an attractive and versatile liquid-liquid extraction technology for the DSP of proteins and enzymes, thus facilitating the approach of new researchers to this technique. Thereby, single- and multi-stage extraction, several process integration methods, as well as large-scale extraction and purification of proteins regarding technical aspects, scale-up, recycling of process chemicals, and economic aspects are discussed.