Neural Modeling of Bromelain Extraction by Reversed Micelles

A pulsed-cap microcolumn was used for bromelain extraction from pineapple juice by reversed micelles. The cationic micellar solution used BDBAC as the surfactant, isooctane as the solvent and hexanol as the co-solvent. In order to capture the dynamic behavior and the nonlinearities of the column, the operating conditions were modified in accordance with the central composite design for the experiment, using the ratio between the light phase flow rate and the total flow rate, and the time interval between pulses. The effects on the purification factor and on total protein yield were modeled via neural networks. The best topology was defined as 16-9-2, and the input layer was a moving window of the independent variables. The neural model successfully predicted both the purification factor and the total protein yield from historical data. At the optimal operating point, a purification factor of 4.96 and a productivity of 1.29 mL/min were obtained.