Applications

Select an application to the left for more information.

Detergent Removal
Detergents are widely used in solubilization of membrane and viral envelope proteins, viral removal/inactivation and vaccine purification. These detergents must eventually be removed downstream in the process after use. Removal techniques such as gel filtration, size exclusion chromatography or dialysis have been used extensively in the biopharmaceutical industry, but they suffer from disadvantages such as dilution of the protein, and have limited effectiveness when dealing with detergents with low critical micelle concencentration (CMC). Amberchrom™, Amberlite™ and Dowex™ ion exchange and adsorbent resins can be used effectively for detergent removal while maintaining high product yields.

Decolorization/Guard Columns
Within the bio-pharmaceutical industry, there are many process streams which require purification by some means or another. Generally, crude feed streams contain unwanted ionic material, color bodies, nucleic acids, and cell wall debris that can readily foul chromatography columns, increasing the need for cleaning validation, and decreasing resin lifetime. Column lifetime can be prolonged by adding an upstream guard column with Amberlite™ or DOWEX™ polymeric resin. These resins can be used to pull out feed stream contaminants that would otherwise quickly foul expensive chromatographic purification resins. These guard column resins can easily be used in a disposable operation, decreasing cost by reducing the frequency of cleaning validation.

Catalyst Recovery
Chemical syntheses use metal catalysts such as platinum. In addition to their initial expense, catalyst recovery efforts decrease API yield and increase overall production costs. In biofermentation, metals such as cadmium are sometimes used to induce protein expression. Disposal of liquid cadmium waste can be troublesome and expensive. Metal can be captured and recovered on AMBERLITE™ and DOWEX™ resins at 5 – 20 grams/ft3 (17 – 700 gram / 1000L), while allowing the API to flow through. This increases the value to catalyst recovery specialists, increases the API yield and lowers overall production costs. Additionally, solid metal waste is easier and less costly to dispose.