Downstream processes of bioproducts from various sources are generally very costly. With Expanded Bed Adsorption (EBA) technology, biomass/solids removal and target capture can be combined in one unit leading to a shorter processing time, reduced process steps, and lower operation cost. Densified adsorbent media with a proper size distribution and the column inlet system are essential for proper EBA operation. However, there is a clear gap on the fundamental understanding of EBA, leading to a non-optimal media/column design and unexpected performance.<br/><br/>In the EBA 2.0 project academia (Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands and Zejiang University, China) and industry (Royal DSM N.V., The Netherlands and Zhejiang Hisun Pharmaceutical CO, LTD, China) will collaborate tightly to improve EBA technology, from the design of new systems and better understanding of EBA performance to the application verifications.<br/><br/>This paper will present recent results on detailed Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations used to investigate the effects of the fluid distributor on the expanded bed hydrodynamics, to aid the scale-up from lab to production scale EBA columns. The overall goal is to understand, optimize, design and scale up/down the EBA Technology which then can be used for various business applications, like biopharmaceuticals, natural products and enzymes.

EBA 2.0: Improving expanded bed adsorption technology for bioproduct recovery

251st National Meeting (2016)

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