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Abstract

Purification is an important step in the production of pharmaceuticals from recombinant proteins. The characteristics of industrial-scale purification schemes, such as conventional chromatography, have a significant impact on the cost of production. Foam fractionation, a novel separation technique based upon the differences in affinities of components for the gas/aqueous interface of a foam, has the potential to be a cost-effective component in a purification scheme. This review covers some of the more recent studies in understanding the process and applications of foam fractionation in protein-containing systems with special attention to the requirements of pharmaceutical products.

Purification and identification of a novel cutinase from Coprinopsis cinerea by adsorptive bubble separation

“…Surface active low molecular mass detergents, such as Tween 80 however, adsorb much faster [10,36]. Thus, adsorption to the air-liquid interface is a time-dependent competition between detergent and protein [13]. If the residence time of the gas bubbles in the liquid phase is too short for the target protein to adsorb to the interface or to replace the detergent, the foaming process preferably enriches detergent molecules in the foam phase instead of the target protein.…”

“…It is regarded as a gentle, economical, and ecological compatible method for the separation and/or concentration of proteins, including active enzymes [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. Foam fractionation is particular appropriate for the early stages of down stream processing, where the separation and concentration of a dilute protein from a large volume of crude starting material is required.…”

Effect of Denaturation by Preheating on the Foam Fractionation Behavior of Ovalbumin

“…There are also a great number of practical uses of aqueous foams in engineering and, in particular, in the pharmaceutical industry (2).…”

“…They did not address how preheating affects foam fractionation performance as expressed by the enrichment ratio and mass recovery. Foam fractionation is an adsorptive separation technique, which is very promising for large-scale purification of proteins particularly as an initial cost-effective step in pharmaceutical and other bioproduct industries (2). Since preheating affects the foaming properties of ovalbumin, it is expected to impact the outcomes of foam fractionation.…”

Scintigraphic Measurement of Liquid Holdup in Foam Fractionation Columns

“…2, has been described previously (9). Briefly, the all-glass column has an internal diameter of 2.5 cm.…”