Separation of hemoglobin-albumin mixture: A simple equilibrium model for scaling up

Major research is currently being conducted to engineer artificial blood or blood substitute. An approach to designing a large-scale purification process is to mathematically model the process.; The purpose of this study was to demonstrate that a simple steady state mass balance model along with a linear equilibrium adsorption isotherm is sufficient in modeling the behavior of proteins during an ion exchange chromatography process. Experimental data was collected to check the validity of the mathematical model of a four step cyclic separation process of hemoglobin and albumin. While the effects of flow rate, displacement volume, and height of the column were investigated the pH of elution buffers was constant.; Recovery of hemoglobin in the first desorption step was approximately 54% for pH7.4 and 0.3M buffer at void volume displacement. For albumin in second desorption step the recovery was 40% with 0.6M Tris buffer at void volume displacement. Flow rate was shown to have little effect in fitting the experimental data to the theoretical model. Height of the column was shown to have no effect in fitting the experimental data to the theoretical model. Displacement volume of the first desorption step was shown to greatly affect the recovery of protein.; Fitting the experimental data for void volume displacements to the theoretical model for both the small column and the large column is the first step in scale-up design. The simple steady state mass balance model along with the linear equilibrium adsorption isotherm proved to be sufficient in modeling the behavior of proteins during an ion exchange chromatography process. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...