Development of a harvesting technology for alternative organic protein sources

This master thesis describes the development of a harvesting technology for alternative organic protein sources. The focus was set on a high purity of the final protein product. Therefore, standardised separation technologies of organic and inorganic components based on different material properties were discussed and practically evaluated in a small scale organic protein factory. Moreover, alternative options such as the cyclone density media separator (DMS) were tested for their suitability as a possible harvesting aggregate. With the combination of wet and dry separation processes purities over 99 [%] as well as recoveries of more than 95 [%] of the used protein sources were achieved. In order to accomplish a dry separation step, a necessary drying step was introduced and investigated. The designed process has confirmed that coping with widely varying qualities and impurity concentrations of the input material are manageable.