Bioseparations engineering

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Bioseparations engineering

• Definition Recovery, isolation, purification and
  polishing of products synthesized by
  biotechnological processes
• Extended definition Final polishing steps of
  processes such as biotechnology based effluent
  treatment and water purification

Bioproduct/s
Upstream processing
Downstream processing
Bioreaction
Impurities
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Why do we need bioseparation?

• Enrichment of target product
• Reduction in bulk
• Removal of specific impurities
• Enhancement of product stability
• Achievement of product specifications
• Prevention of product degradation
• Prevention of catalysis other than the type
  desired
• Prevention of catalyst poisoning

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Challenges in bioseparations engineering

• Low product concentration concentrations
• Large number of impurities,
• Thermolabile bioproducts.
• Narrow operating pH and ionic strength window
• Shear sensitivity of bioproducts
• Low solubility of bioproducts in organic solvents
• Instability of bioproducts in organic solvents
• Stringent quality requirements
• Percentage purity
• Absence of specific impurities

An ideal bioseparation process should combine
high throughput with high selectivity, and should
ensure stability of product.
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Biological products
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Biological products (contd..)
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A good bioseparation process

• Ensures desired purity of product
• Ensures stability of product
• Keeps cost low
• Is reproducible
• Is scalable
• Meets regulatory guidelines

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Economic importance of bioseparation engineering
Cost of bioseparation
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Strategies for bioseparation

• A large number of bioseparation methods are
  available
• The strategy is based on how best these can be
  utilized for a given separation
• The following need to be taken into account
• The volume of process stream
• The relative abundance of the product in this
  process stream
• The intended use of the product, i.e. purity
  requirements
• The cost of the product
• Stability requirements

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Conventional strategy The RIPP scheme

• Recovery, isolation, purification and polishing
• Based on a logical arrangement of bioseparation
  methods
• Low-resolution, high-throughput techniques (e.g.
  precipitation, filtration, centrifugation,
  crystallization) are first used for recovery and
  isolation
• High-resolution techniques (e.g. adsorption,
  chromatography, electrophoresis) are then used
  for purification and polishing
• It is now possible to avoid this RIPP scheme

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Bioseparation methods

• Low resolution-high throughput
• Cell disruption
• Precipitation
• Centrifugation
• Liquid-liquid extraction
• Leaching
• Filtration
• Supercritical fluid extraction
• Microfiltration
• Dialysis
• High resolution-low throughput
• Ultracentrifugation
• Adsorption
• Packed bed chromatography
• Affinity separation
• Electrophoresis

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Bioseparation methods (contd..)

• High resolution-high throughput
• Ultrafiltration
• Fluidized bed chromatography
• Membrane chromatography
• Monolith column chromatography
• In this course we will discuss
• Ultrafiltration
• Membrane chromatography (membrane adsorption)