The efficiency of separation operations is a critical point to determinate the yield and economic viability of a production process.
Because of this, the selection of adequate operation parameters become an important part of the design of a new bioprocess.
In this work, the evaluation of the compatibility of two filtering agents over cells of yeast of Meyerozyma guilliermondii, a potential
prebiotic yeast isolated in Colombia, was conducted. After the filtering agent was selected, the efficiency of separation was determined
over different filter cloth on a monophasic filter system. Firstly, 50mL of fermented broth with yeast cells were put in contact with
two filtering agents, codified as glass beads and kaolin, at 4 concentrations (0.5, 1, 1.5 and 2.5% w/v). Three hours later, the cellular
viability was determined on YMA. The efficiency of separation was computed using four filter cloth references sold by Andritz®: 211,
275, 292 and 351, at a constant concentration (1% w/v). As a result, glass beads had no negative effect on cellular viability in any of
the concentration evaluated. Furthermore, kaolin had an average reduction of 1±0.5% of cellular viability due to its properties as a
disinfectant. During the efficiency evaluation, the glass beads could not retain yeast cells due to its low particle size respect to the pore
diameter of the filter cloth evaluated, reducing the chance of filter cake formation. Nevertheless, the kaolin presented an efficiency
of 41.59% with the filter cloth reference 211. To conclude, kaolin at a concentration of 1% w/v guaranteed a low reduction of cellular
viability but not a good separation efficiency using the filter cloths evaluated, therefore, a new group of filter cloth or a combination
of filtering agents could be evaluated to increase the efficiency of separation.
