Recommended technique
Separation handle: Salt/sugar separation, desalting.
Scope: 200-1000 Da. CAPEX range: $150k-$800k.
Property comparison
| Property | Glucose | Lactose |
|---|---|---|
| Molecular weight | 180.16 Da | 342.3 Da |
| Solubility (water) | 909 g/L | 195 g/L |
| Charge | 0 | 0 |
| Isoelectric point | — | — |
| pKa | 12.28 | 12.38 |
| Density | 1.54 g/cm³ | 1.52 g/cm³ |
| Diffusion coefficient | 6.73e-06 cm²/s | 5.20e-06 cm²/s |
| Log P | -3.24 | -4.02 |
Process design walkthrough
Define your feed stream
Set Glucose and Lactose as components with their concentrations and physical properties. Use the molecule database to auto-populate properties.
Drop in Nanofiltration
Connect the feed inlet, configure operating parameters (MWCO, pH, eluent, residence time as relevant), and connect the two outlets to product and waste streams.
Run the simulation
untangle.bio calculates outlet concentrations using mass balance and the separation function for this technique. Iterate on parameters to optimise yield vs purity.
Add polishing if needed
If the single step doesn't meet your purity spec, add a second separation with a complementary handle (e.g., size after charge, hydrophobicity after size).
Read more
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is Nanofiltration the right choice for this pair?
Nanofiltration exploits salt/sugar separation, desalting as the separation handle. The property gap between Glucose and Lactose on this axis is large enough to give a clean separation in a single step at industrially relevant flow rates.
What yield and purity can I expect?
Typical single-step recovery is 85-99% depending on operating conditions. Purity from a single nanofiltration step is in the 90-99% range; polishing steps push above 99.5%.
What does this step cost to operate?
Capital cost for Nanofiltration at biotech scale is in the $150k-$800k range. Operating cost depends on scale, feed concentration, and product value. See the technique page for details.
How do I design this in untangle.bio?
Drop a nanofiltration unit operation into the flowsheet, connect the feed stream containing both Glucose and Lactose, and the simulator will calculate mass balance and expected outlet concentrations using the molecule database properties.
Design this separation in untangle.bio
Build a flowsheet, simulate yield and purity, and estimate CAPEX for separating Glucose from Lactose.
Open untangle.bio