Rapid lactose recovery from buffalo whey by use of ‘anti-solvent, ethanol’

In the present study the heat-induced partially deproteinated (0.1–0.2% w/v of residual protein after deproteination step) paneer whey (that resembles cottage cheese whey), originated from buffalo milk (containing 3.85–4.95% w/v of lactose) was tried for possible rapid lactose recovery, using ‘anti-solvent’ (ethanol). Optimization of various process parameters such as effective ethanol concentration (65–85% v/v), pH, temperature, seeding, etc. was carried out. On optimization of the process, the lactose recovery of more than 90% and the purity of 97–99% was obtained from paneer whey in 1 h of stirring time, at an effective ethanol concentration of 85% v/v. The ‘roundness’ (shape factor) and ‘elongation’ (aspect ratio) values of the lactose crystals recovered in the present study were found to be comparable to that of commercial analytical grade lactose sample. The crystallization kinetics has been also studied of the lactose recovery using anti-solvent ‘ethanol’ based recovery process.