Separation of Tea Saponin by Two-Stage Continuous Foam Fractionation

A technology of two-stage continuous foam fractionation for tea saponin recovery was studied for increasing both the enrichment ratio and the recovery percentage. In the first stage, the effect of air flow rate, the initial pH, the feed flow rate, and the feed position were studied at a temperature of 60 degrees C. The results showed that when the conditions of the first stage were at a temperature of 60 degrees C, air flow rate 150 mL/min, pH 5.3, feed flow rate 1.92 mL/min, and feed position at the interface between the liquid phase and the foam phase, the enrichment ratio, and the recovery percentage of tea saponin were 4.02 and 56.4%, respectively, and the effluent solution was added to the second stage as the initial solution. When the conditions of the second stage were at a temperature of 30 degrees C and an air flow rate of 300 mL/min, the recovery percentage of tea saponin reached 47.6%, and the foamate was added to the first stage as feed solution. The total recovery percentage of tea saponin reached 86.3% by the two-stage continuous foam fractionation.