Bioprocessing with Membranes: Filtration and Chromatography (2nd Edition)

A special issue of Membranes (ISSN 2077-0375). This special issue belongs to the section "Membrane Processing and Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2023) | Viewed by 1973

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
iBB—Institute for Bioengineering and Biosciences, IST, Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Rovisco Pais, nº1, 1049-001 Lisbon, Portugal
Interests: bioprocess engineering; biopharmaceuticals; bioseparations; bioreactors; membrane processes
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Membrane filtration has been widely considered a useful separation technique, mainly due to its advantages compared to other separation techniques, both economically and regarding the quality of the recovered products. Applications can be found in various industries, such as wastewater treatment or water production/reclamation, biorefineries, food and beverage, and biopharmaceutical sectors. The main purposes are the removal of dispersions, pollutants or impurities, the concentration of target products and the recovery of byproducts from process streams, and the retention of cells or other biocatalysts in continuous or perfused bioreactors. Major concerns in membrane filtration processes are still the impact of membrane fouling on the process performance, the implications of not selecting the best operation conditions or sequence of processes, and the energy and membrane cost requirements for processing. Which innovative strategies are thought to overcome these difficulties?

Chromatography is a fine-tuning separation method important for many bioprocesses, in which specific physical–chemical and affinity properties of the target products and of the respective impurities are addressed to meet effective separation and high purity in a final product when required. Membranes have been used as chromatographic solid matrices (e.g., adsorbers), particularly for the purification and polishing steps of large biomolecules, such as biopharmaceuticals. Which new membrane adsorbers are being developed or need development? Which novelties are proposed for membrane module design? Modeling and applications of continuous chromatography operation and the outputs of membrane column arrangements would probably be very insightful.

This Special Issue aims to cover the latest developments and innovations regarding membrane filtration and membrane chromatography operation and their systems for bioprocessing. Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

  • Fundamentals and applications—new approaches;
  • Batch and continuous processing strategies;
  • Up- and downstream process integration;
  • Membrane improvement for fouling control;
  • Development of membrane adsorbers;
  • Depth filtration with membranes;
  • Comparative performance of membrane materials/structures;
  • Membrane bioreactors;
  • Scale-up studies and scale-down devices;
  • Module design;
  • Process economics;
  • Modeling of membrane performance and membrane systems.

Dr. Marília Mateus
Guest Editor

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

9 pages, 2108 KiB  
Communication
Impact of the Membrane Structure of the Stationary Phase on Steric Exclusion Chromatography (SXC) of Lentiviral Vectors
by Jennifer J. Labisch, G. Philip Wiese, Karl Pflanz and John Linkhorst
Membranes 2023, 13(10), 849; https://doi.org/10.3390/membranes13100849 - 23 Oct 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1614
Abstract
For steric exclusion chromatography (SXC), hydrophilic stationary phases are used to capture the target molecule in the presence of polyethylene glycol. The influence of the structure and pore size of the stationary phase on the process requirements are not yet well understood. To [...] Read more.
For steric exclusion chromatography (SXC), hydrophilic stationary phases are used to capture the target molecule in the presence of polyethylene glycol. The influence of the structure and pore size of the stationary phase on the process requirements are not yet well understood. To better understand the SXC process, membranes with different pore sizes that served as a stationary phase were compared for the purification of lentiviral vectors (LVs). A design of experiments (DoE) was performed to assess the combined impact of PEG concentration and membrane pore size on the purification performance. A visualization experiment showed that the LVs were captured on the first membrane layer for a pore size up to 2.2 µm, and for a pore size larger than 2.2 µm, LVs were also partly found on the second and third membrane layers. Moreover, we could observe that increasing membrane pore size requires a higher PEG concentration to achieve comparable LV recoveries. Using five membrane layers as a stationary phase was sufficient to achieve good performance, supporting the visualized capture results. In conclusion, we could show that each stationary phase has its optimal PEG buffer compositions for SXC, depending on the membrane structure and pore size. Full article
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