Multistage extraction and purification of waste Sargassum natans to produce sodium alginate: An optimization approach

Akeem Mohammed; Rakesh Bissoon; Elisheba Bajnath; Kristy Mohammed; Thérèse Lee; Meera Bissram; Nigel John; Nigel K Jalsa; Koon-Yang Lee; Keeran Ward

doi:10.1016/j.carbpol.2018.06.067

Multistage extraction and purification of waste Sargassum natans to produce sodium alginate: An optimization approach

Carbohydr Polym. 2018 Oct 15:198:109-118. doi: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2018.06.067. Epub 2018 Jun 18.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical Engineering, University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad, WI.
² Department of Chemistry, University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad, WI.
³ Department of Aeronautics, Imperial College London, SW7 2AZ, London, UK.
⁴ Department of Chemical Engineering, University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad, WI. Electronic address: Keeran.Ward@sta.uwi.edu.

PMID: 30092980
DOI: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2018.06.067

Abstract

Sargassum in the Caribbean region has affected the livelihood of several coastal communities due to the influx of large quantities of the seaweed in recent times. This article seeks to explore how waste Sargassum natans can be utilized to produce sodium alginate. The novelty in this research lies in the optimization process, whereby multistage extraction and precipitation were investigated over commonly used single stage processing, in an effort to maximize both yield and purity. The results showed that a maximum yield of 19% was observed after 1 stage, while the purity was 74% after 4 stages. In addition, optimization of the multistage precipitation process using the Global Optimization Toolbox in MATLAB R2017b provided a novel model which indicated that a compromise between the maximum purity and yield can be obtained at 3 stages; 71-74% and 12-16% respectively. Furthermore, characterization was done using FTIR and NMR, with results comparable to a commercial sodium alginate brand, giving absorption bands at 1610 cm^-1 and 1395 cm^-1 and an M/G ratio of 0.51 respectively.

Keywords: Multistage extraction; Multistage precipitation; NMR; Optimization; Sargassum natans; Sodium alginate.