Effect of adsorbent porosity on performance of expanded bed chromatography of proteins

Expanded bed or fluidized bed adsorption has emerged as an important unit operation in downstream processing of proteins. A number of specifically designed commercial adsorbents are available today for expanded bed purification of proteins. Protein purification essentially requires adsorbent matrices that have large pore size. Very large pore size or macroporous adsorbents can provide high efficiency in packed beds even at high flow rates on account of reduced pore diffusion resistance resulting from finite intraparticle flow in the macropores. This is reflected in leveling off of HETP (height equivalent to theoretical plate) versus flow curve after a threshold velocity. Expanded bed operation, on the other hand, can also show plateauing of the HETP curve, but not necessarily on account of macroporosity of adsorbent. It is shown in this article how any adsorbent intended for protein adsorption in expanded bed mode can give plateauing HETP curve, regardless of pore size. As a result, RTD measurements on an expanded bed can give equal, and at times better, performance than a corresponding packed bed. Large pore size, on the other hand, can result in lesser retention of biomass and easy flushing of the adsorbent to obtain an entirely particulate-free adsorbent prior to the product elution step. Adsorbent with larger pores is also shown to provide faster and more efficient elution both in packed and expanded bed modes.