Continuous
countercurrent chromatography has been established in
industrial operations for over six decades and in fine chemical and
pharmaceutical industry since the 1990s. In biotechnological processing,
the area where chromatography plays a criticaland often multipleroles,
implementation is lacking for various reasons. Options are shown to
correct this and make continuous countercurrent chromatography a technologically
and economically viable option in GMP-regulated processing. Current
approaches, with the exception of MCSGP (multicolumn countercurrent
solvent gradient purification), just operate a manifold of 2–6
columns in a sequential but batchwise scheduling. Modifications were
made to reduce equipment complexity in GMP-regulated manufacturing
and to exploit benefits of countercurrent operation for adsorbent
and buffer reduction. A solution with only one column and a minimum
of valves, pumps, and buffer vessels was developed. The approach also
describes integration of two or more chromatography steps in continuous
production, both GMP- and biocompatible.