Crystallization of lysozyme from lysozyme - ovalbumin mixtures: Separation potential and crystal growth kinetics

Lysozyme was successfully separated from mixtures of lysozyme and ovalbumin by crystallization. The purity of the lysozyme product is more than 98%, the remaining activity is greater than 97%, and the yields of the crystal products were greater than 80%. The experimental conditions used were varied to study the effect of the operating parameters on the growth kinetics of lysozyme crystal and the separation ability of the process. The growth rates of lysozyme are second order with respect to the relative supersaturation. Therefore the growth kinetics of the crystallization process is controlled by the surface integration mechanism. The calculated growth rate constants were 5.4×10−6 cm/h and 2.5×10−6 cm/h for the crystallization process at 20 °C and 10 °C, respectively. There is no significant effect of the ovalbumin impurity up to the concentration of 67.5% ovalbumin (based on total protein) on the growth kinetics of lysozyme. Changing the NaCl concentration from 4% to 3% had no effect on the growth kinetics of lysozyme, although this does change the solubility and therefore the yield. The calculated activation energy was 53.08 kJ/mol which supports the hypothesis that the crystallization process is controlled by the surface integration mechanism.