This work presents the scale-up of a sorption process for the fractionation and enrichment of bioactive compounds in winemaking residues using molecularly imprinted adsorbents. The process works with hydroalcoholic solvents and the improvement of the bioactivity of the produced fractions, comparatively to the raw extracts, is demonstrated. The proposed approach was experimentally validated through the designing and running of a pilot size sorption prototype for the automation of the fractionation method. The synthesis of the molecularly imprinted adsorbents was made at the gram-scale and spent diatomaceous earth, used for wine filtration, was considered as a possible source of bioactive compounds in winemaking residues. The different fractions produced were evaluated for their antioxidant activity through three different assays, namely radical scavenging activity, reducing power and inhibition of lipid peroxidation. The results obtained show the improvement of the bioactivity of most of the fractions comparatively to the original diatomaceous earth extract. The most enriched fraction is estimated to have a total phenolic content c.a. 3.8 times higher than the original extract. The radical scavenging activity, the reducing power and the inhibition of lipid peroxidation for this fraction were measured to be 6.4, 4.2 and 4.5 times higher, respectively, than the initial diatomaceous earth extract. This work provides new insights on biomass valorisation and circular bioeconomy by combining in the same research materials development, process design and application to real extracts with proved improvement of the bioactivity of purified products.
