Continuous separation of proteins by multichannel flow electrophoresis

A new preparative electrophoresis method, multichannel flow electrophoresis (MFE), is proposed in this paper. Mechanisms for different operation modes of MFE are described and a simulation of continuous MFE is proposed. A membrane spaced 5-compartment electrolyzer is developed in which the central compartment and its neighboring compartments are respectively used for sample loading and product discharging. The mass transfer behavior of MFE is investigated by measuring the equivalent migration speed and mobility of bovine serum albumin (BSA) and hemoglobin bovine blood (HBB) at different buffering pH, electric field strength, and sample loading now rate. The continuous separation of a mixture composed of BSA and HBB, buffered with 0.01 M Tris-HAc at pH 5.9, yields 13.2 mg BSA and 20.0 mg HBB per hour. The application of MFE is exemplified through purification of anti-urokinase mouse IgG. The preliminary results confirm the workability of MFE and point out its promising application potentials in the downstream process of biochemical engineering.