Large scale protein separations: engineering aspects of chromatography.

The engineering considerations common to large scale chromatographic purification of proteins are reviewed. A discussion of the industrial chromatography fundamentals is followed by aspects which affect the scale of separation. The separation column geometry, the effect of the main operational parameters on separation performance, and the physical characteristics of column packing are treated. Throughout, the emphasis is on ion exchange and size exclusion techniques which together constitute the major portion of commercial chromatographic protein purifications. In all cases, the state of current technology is examined and areas in need of further development are noted. The physico-chemical advances now underway in chromatographic separation of biopolymers would ensure a substantially enhanced role for these techniques in industrial production of products of new biotechnology.