Kinetic Study of the Mass Transfer of Bovine Serum Albumin on Cibacron Blue Cellulose Membranes by Using the Multi-Plate and Transport Models

Investigation of the concentration dependence of mass transfer coefficients in reversed-phase liquid chromatography

In order to investigate the concentration dependence of mass transfer coefficients in RPLC, experimental breakthrough curves obtained by staircase frontal analysis (FA) were fitted to the simplified models such as multiplate (MP) model, equilibrium dispersive (ED) model, and transport model, and the sophisticated models such as lumped pore diffusion (POR) model and general rate (GR) model. The MP model was used to obtain the initial guesses of the parameters of the ED and the transport models. Then the best values were obtained by minimizing the differences between theoretical and experimental values with a nonlinear fitting procedure. The values of the parameters of the POR and the GR models can be calculated by using the expressions derived from the plate height equations, which was further validated by using the fitting method. It was found that the mass transfer coefficients would depend on the solute concentration. This can be ascribed to the surface diffusivity, which correlates with the concentration and is lumped into the mass transfer coefficients for both simplified and sophisticated models.

Mass transfer kinetics and breakthrough and elution curves for bovine serum albumin using cibacron blue cellulose membranes

The mass transfer of bovine serum albumin onto a stack of cibacron blue cellulose membranes in the loading and elution stages were studied. The breakthrough curves obtained in the loading stage were fitted to the pore and the lumped kinetic (LK) models, respectively. Then experimental data obtained in the elution stage were described by using the LK model in which the kinetic equation, the initial and the boundary conditions were rewritten according to the operation. For the breakthrough curves it was found that the contribution of the sorption kinetics to band broadening was significant whereas that of axial dispersion was negligible. In contrast, both of these contributions were significant to the profile of the elution curve. By studying the mass transfer kinetics in the elution stage, information about the influence of the module geometry on the performance of affinity membrane separations may be obtained.