Fixed-bed operations are central to many separation and purification processes; a critical factor limiting efficiency in many cases is the excess pressure drop which develops as particle size decreases and bed depth increases. One way of preventing this is to fluidize the bed; fluidization has the drawback, however, of increasing the mixing between volume elements in the bed, which reduces chromatographic separation of mixture components. Stabilization of the bed with a magnetic field can improve the separation. A critical area for investigation of the potential advantages of using a magnetically stabilized fluidized bed is that of large-scale reverse phase chromatography. Reverse phase chromatography is an important purification process in many schemes for producing commercial quantities of biological molecules produced from genetically altered microorganisms or cell-cultures. This project will examine potential improvements to the efficiency of reverse phase chromatography for bioseparations from its implementation in a magnetically stabilized fluidized bed. Lower pressure drops, better ability to handle entrained particulates, and possible improvements in packing handling ability in an MSFB configuration make this a potentially important process for downstream processing in the biotechnology industry.
