Recently, Fengzhong Wang's team at the Institute of Food Science and Technology has conducted a systematic review and summary of research in the field of dry electrostatic separation of plant proteins. The related research result was published in the top journal of Trends in Food Science & Technology (IF: 12.563) with a title "Electrostatic separation technology for obtaining plant protein concentrates: A review".

Replacing energy-intensive animal proteins with plant proteins is becoming a new way of life in recent years. However, since the traditional plant protein separation technology (wet separation) has a significant negative impact on the environment, water resources and plant protein itself, electrostatic separation based on the difference of tribo-charging characteristics between plant protein and other components has been developing rapidly in recent years as a new dry separation method. A review of the relevant literature shows that factors affecting the final protein separation efficiency exist at all stages, from the pretreatment effect of the material (particle size, moisture content, etc.) to the construction of the separator (tribo-charging material, pipe length, electric field voltage magnitude, collection chamber location, etc.). The separation efficiency of protein can be further improved by cyclic separation or a combination of separation methods (e.g. air classification). However, although the proteins obtained by electrostatic separation retain their natural functional properties, they are still affected by other confounding components such as phenols or starch. Therefore, electrostatic separation techniques still face limiting problems to be solved before they can be widely used.

Hong-Guang Zhu is the first author, Professor Li-Tao Tong and Professor Zai-Gui Li at are co-corresponding authors. This work was supported by the the National Natural Science Foundation of China [31972005] and the Earmarked Fund for China Agriculture Research System [CARS-07-E− 4].

Figure 1 Typical electrostatic separators designed on the basis of different methods used to impart surface charge.

Figure 2 (a) Histological composition of a wheat grain and compound starch granule in the endosperm subaleurone layer. (b) Schematic diagram of different methods of milling. 

Figure 3 Schematic diagram of the combination of several different separation methods.

Link to the paper: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tifs.2021.04.044