Continuous Crystallization Platforms to Crystallize Biomolecules

In the realm of industrial crystallization for biomolecules, batch crystallizers have been the predominant platform, although continuous crystallizers with clearly superior performances have been actively investigated in recent years. Among them, mixed-suspension-mixed-product-removal crystallizer (MSMPRC), plug flow crystallizer (PFC), slug flow crystallizer (SFC), oscillatory flow baffled crystallizer (OFBC), and other innovative continuous platforms such as membrane crystallizer and Couette-Taylor (CT) crystallizer are introduced in this chapter. These crystallizers have been utilized in continuous crystallization of biomolecules including globular proteins such as lysozyme and insulin. Their key design variables encompassing variables affecting kinetics (residence time distribution (RTD), mixing strategy, etc.) and variables affecting thermodynamics (driving force of crystallization) are discussed. As a promising alternative to conventional chromatography method, continuous crystallization shows great potential for downstream processing of biomolecules.