Displacement chromatography of proteins

Displacement chromatography is rapidly emerging as a powerful preparative bioseparation technique because of the high throughput and purity associated with the process (1). The operation of preparative elution systems at elevated concentrations has been shown to result in significant tailing of the peaks with the concomitant loss of separation efficiency (2). In contrast, displacement chromatography offers distinct advantages in preparative chromatography as compared to the conventional elution mode (1,3,4). The process takes advantage of the nonlinearity of the isotherms, such that a larger feed can be separated on a given column with the purified components recovered at significantly higher concentrations. Furthermore, the tailing observed in elution chromatography is greatly reduced in displacement chromatography owing to self-sharpening boundaries formed in the process. Whereas in elution chromatography the feed components are diluted during the separation, the feed components are often concentrated during displacement chromatography (3-7) .These advantages are particular-y significant for the isolation of biopolymers from dilute solutions, such as those encountered in biotechnology processes.