Effect of fouling on the capacity and breakthrough characteristics of a packed bed ion exchange chromatography column

This study examined the impact of fouling with yeast homogenate on capacity and breakthrough performance of an ion exchange packed bed column. Column performance was assessed by analysis of breakthrough curves obtained with BSA as a test protein. The overall impact of fouling on breakthrough performance depended heavily on the level of clarification of the feed stream. Challenging the column with particulate-free homogenate caused no change in column performance. Loading successive small volumes of poorly clarified homogenate, interspersed with frequent column salt washes, did not alter significantly the column capacity. By contrast, when the column was challenged with an equivalent cumulative volume of poorly clarified homogenate, dynamic binding capacity decreased significantly and changes in breakthrough curves suggested increased intraparticle and external mass transfer limitations. These changes were ascribed to deposition of solid particulates in void spaces in the bed and colloidal contaminants in the bead pores.