Xanthan gum assisted foam fractionation for the recovery of casein from the dairy wastewater.

Casein was the major protein in the milk of mammals and it was massively lost in the discharged wastewater during dairy product manufacture. This work was aimed at recovering casein from the dairy wastewater by using foam fractionation. In order to improve the foam stability, xanthan gum was used as the foam stabilizer based on the association between protein and polysaccharide. The results of the scanning electron microscope (SEM) and fluorescence emission spectrum suggested that casein could be associated with xanthan gum primarily through electrostatic attraction, which was significantly affected by pH. Moreover, the introduction of xanthan gum had a marked impact on the surface tension, foam ability, foam stability, turbidity, zeta potential and average particle size of casein dispersion. Foam fractionation was performed under the suitable operation condition of pH 6.0, loading liquid volume 400 mL, amount ratio of casein and xanthan gum 1:2, volumetric airflow rate 100 mL/min and pore diameter of gas distributor 0.180 mm. The enrichment ratio and the recovery percentage of casein reached as high as 16.81 and 86.51%, respectively. This work is expected to provide a cost-effective method to recover the trace desired material through improving foam stability based on intermolecular forces. Research highlights Foam fractionation has been proposed to recover casein from dairy wastewater. Xanthan gum has been used to improve the foam stability of casein. The main interaction between casein and xanthan gum was an electrostatic attraction. Xanthan gum contributed to weakening the flowability of interstitial liquid.