Concentration of BSA using a superabsorbent polymer: process evaluation.

A commercially available super absorbent polymer from Hoechst (Sanwet IM-5000-SG) was tested for the concentration of dilute solutions of bovine serum albumin (BSA). A systematic study was undertaken in order to evaluate the possibility of scaling-up the process. The polymer was first characterized by determining the swelling ratio (or mass increase) in aqueous solution as a function of time, temperature, pH, salt and polymer concentration. The swelling ratio was found to be independent of the polymer concentration, temperature (range 15-50 degree C), and pH (range 4-10), but decreased significantly with an increase in NaCL concentration. The polymer was capable of absorbing as much as 300-times its own weight in water, when using the most favorable conditions (0 mM NaCL). BSA was concentrated up to 3.5-times when using the appropriate polymer concentration. The recovery of protein was around 100% for concentration factors below 2.0, but decreased for higher concentration factors. As expected from the characterization results, higher amounts of polymer were needed to concentrate BSA solutions with higher salt concentrations. The performance of the process improved when using lower concentration BSA solutions (0.15 to 0.5 mg ml-1). The initial volume (10 to 500 ml) had a slight effect on the process due to a decrease in the rate of the absorption process. The concentration factor was predicted from the NaCL and polymer concentrations through a semi empirical model.