Comparison of Ultrafiltration and Size-exclusion Chromatography Performances for Proteins Desalination

Tampereen ammattikorkeakoulu Tampere University of Applied Sciences Paper, Textile and Chemical Engineering Arina Akhmetova: Comparison of ultrafiltration and size-exclusion chromatography performances for proteins desalination Bachelor's thesis 41 pages November 2014 Protein purification is a part of biotechnology. Its application can vary from laboratory researches to industrial production. Nowadays there are a lot of different methods of purification, which involve chromatographic and membrane-based separations. This thesis work was based on research project which was done during my practical training in summer 2013 in IUT Nancy-Brabois. The objectives of this work were to define the best conditions of size exclusion chromatography and ultrafiltration for separation protein-salt mixture, to observe its effect on performances such as purity, production yield, productivity, and to compare these two methods. It is important for process optimization, saving time and energy. This work consists of two parts: theory background and experimental. In first part different purification methods, basic principle of chromatography and membrane based separations are explained for better understanding of the research project. The information is based on literature review. In second part process of work is described and obtained results are shown. The performances of these separation methods depend on different conditions: in ultrafiltration it is flow rate and diavolumes, in chromatography it is injection volume, bed height and flow rate. The results show that in laboratory scale ultrafiltration is more efficient in protein desalination, but with this method high values of purity cannot be reached without losing sufficient protein mass.