Amino Acid Production

Amino acids are an essential part of healthy growth, starting at birth and throughout a lifetime. Because the human body cannot produce the acids, they are enrichment ingredients for foods, animal feed, supplements, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. 

Amino acids form peptide chains within a body to create the building blocks of a vast array of proteins. In the form of proteins, amino acids comprise the second-largest component of human muscles and tissues. They also participate in a few processes, such as neurotransmitter transport and biosynthesis.

There are nine "essential" amino acids: histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan and valine. 

As the demand for amino acids increased, fermentation and synthesis became the primary source for production. The acid quality is dependent on the critical purification process. 
 

Purolite can provide solutions for separation and purification with ion exchange. When separating amino acids, the porosity of the resin is essential. While amino acids are small in size, other impurities might not be. Our jetted technology produces uniform beads that can help to increase the yield of the production by minimizing dilution of the amino acid and efficiently separating the amino acids from each other. Purolite offers a range of products to include: 

• Cation exchange resin provides technology for the selective removal of the amino acid via pH adjustment - commonly used to isolate lysine.
• Adsorbents separate the hydrophobic amino acid from the hydrophilic ones based on the pH while not affecting the pH levels.
• Anion exchange resin offers an appropriate counterion to keep the pH stable.  
• Chelating ion exchange resin helps to improve the absorption of minerals by removing the metals. 
• Chromalite provides chromatography and purification of the amino acids.