Vogelbusch builds small-scale version of separation model for pharma industry

Vogelbusch, an Austrian engineering provider to biotech companies, has adapted a chromatographic separation process for use in the pharma sector.

The company, which has been operating a large-scale version of the "simulated moving bed" (SMB) process at its headquarters in Vienna for some time, is using the system to develop a smaller-scale single column version.

Use of SMB is said to represent the cutting-edge of technology in the commodity market but its application in the pharmaceutical industry is rare. Vogelbusch's latest development aims to expand the range of available opportunities for its use. The system is based on liquid distributors, which enable individual process streams to be introduced into and drawn off from the adsorbent evenly at various points in the column.While the various inlet and outlet points of a multicolumn SMB are located in the piping between the columns, the distributor system now locates these in the adsorbent.

Using the single column principle opens up new areas of application that remain closed to the multicolumn process due to the ongoing problem associated with the changes in adsorbent volume. The system contains fewer moving parts and is less prone to disruption. This means processes are uninterrupted and the life cycle of the system is increased. The resin bed is no longer divided into several columns, which also eliminates the disadvantages associated with this process. Given that this system is also more efficient than multicolumn SMB, the commercial benefits are claimed to include less investment, lower running costs and increased performance will clearly maximise profits for the user.

"If separation resins are used as adsorbents in SMB, they experience a change in volume between the charging and decharging of the columns," said Professor Alois Jungbauer of the Department of Biotechnology at the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences in Vienna, where the distributor system was developed with Vogelbusch.

"In the multicolumn process, this change in volume can lead to a decline in separation performance or a large hydrodynamic pressure drop. However, in the single column process, the expansion and contraction of the adsorbent occurs at various points in the column simultaneously. As a result, both effects cancel one another out and the volume - and thus the separation performance - remains constant."

A prototype has been unveiled and an international patent application has been submitted for this device.