Patent ID: 8883472

Claim:
A method for extracting water from an aqueous solution of a protein, the method comprising: intermixing the aqueous solution of the protein with a sufficient quantity of at least one glycol ether at a temperature between 10 centigrade degrees above the lower critical solution temperature (LCST) and 30 centigrade degrees above the LCST, to form a suspension comprising a concentrated aqueous protein phase and a liquid organic phase comprising said at least one glycol ether and at least 10 percent water extracted from the aqueous solution of the protein, separating the concentrated aqueous protein phase from the liquid organic phase and recovering a separated concentrated aqueous protein phase and a separated liquid organic phase wherein the glycol ether has an inverse solubility in water, and the solubility of the glycol ether in water is at most 90% of the solubility of water in the glycol ether at the temperature at which the intermixing is performed, and wherein the protein in the separated concentrated aqueous protein phase is not significantly deactivated.