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Enhanced keratin extraction from wool waste using a deep eutectic solvent

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Abstract

In this study, the solubilization of waste coarse wool as a precursory step for the large-scale valorization of keratin was investigated using a green deep eutectic solvent (DES) based on L-cysteine and lactic acid. The investigation was undertaken via the response surface methodology and based on the Box–Behnken design for four process variables of temperature (70–110 °C), dissolution time (2–10 h), the mass of L-cysteine (0.5–2.5 g) in 20 mL of lactic acid, and wool load in the DES (0.2–0.6 g). Temperature was the most significant process variable influencing keratin yield from the waste coarse wool. The optimum keratin yield (93.77 wt.%) was obtained at the temperature of 105 °C, 8 h dissolution time, with 1.6 g L-cysteine in 20 mL of lactic acid using 0.5 g of wool. This study suggests L-cysteine and lactic acid as a green solvent with the potential to scale up keratin recovery from waste wool without significant destruction in the structure of the recovered keratin.

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Acknowledgements

The first author (O.V.O) gratefully acknowledges the financial support of Wallonia-Brussels International via the Wallonie-Bruxelles International (WBI) excellence Postdoctoral fellowship. H.J acknowledges Innoviris Brussels, Belgium (https://innoviris.brussels) under the project 2019–BRIDGE–4: RE4BRU for his PhD fellowship. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not represent the official views of the above-mentioned fellowship agencies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), École Polytechnique de Bruxelles - BioMatter Unit, Avenue F.D. Roosevelt, 50 - CP 165/61, 1050, Brussels, Belgium

    Oseweuba Valentine Okoro, Hafez Jafari, Parinaz Hobbi & Amin Shavandi

  2. College of Life Sciences, **nyang Normal University, **nyang, 464000, China

    Lei Nie

  3. School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand

    Houman Alimoradi

Authors
  1. Oseweuba Valentine Okoro
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  2. Hafez Jafari
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  3. Parinaz Hobbi
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  4. Lei Nie
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  5. Houman Alimoradi
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  6. Amin Shavandi
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Contributions

O.V.O., L.N., and A.S. contributed to conceptualization, O.V.O., H.J., and P.H. were involved in methodology, O.V.O. provided software, M.H. and A.S. contributed to validation, O.V.O., H.J., P.H., L.N., H.A., and A.S. were involved in writing—original draft preparation, and O.V.O. H.J., P.H., L.N., H.A., and A.S contributed to writing—review and editing.

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Correspondence to Lei Nie or Amin Shavandi.

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Okoro, O.V., Jafari, H., Hobbi, P. et al. Enhanced keratin extraction from wool waste using a deep eutectic solvent. Chem. Pap. 76, 2637–2648 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11696-021-02029-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11696-021-02029-4

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