Expanded Bed Adsorption: An Option For Energy Savings In Multiple Proteins Purification

Abstract

Expanded Bed Adsorption enables the protein recovery directly from cultivations of microorganisms or cells and preparations of disrupted cells, without the need for prior removal of suspended solids. The performance ofan expanded bed is comparable to a packed bed owing to reduced mixing of the adsorbent particles, clogging/plugging of solid particles in the column, while fluidized bed requires more velocity which may hinder the adsorption equilibrium. However,optimal operating conditions are more restricted than in a packed bed/fluidized bed due to the dependence of bed expansion on the sizeand density of the adsorbent particles as well as the viscosity and density of the feedstock. These difficulties can beovercomes in expanded-bed chromatography. In this work the steady state hydrodynamic behaviour of expanded beds studied experimentally.The present study focused on hydrodynamics of multiple particles separation and subsequently can be applied to the multiple proteins separation in a single expanded bed.