Model discrimination and estimation of the intraparticle mass transfer parameters for the adsorption of bovine serum albumin onto porous adsorbent particles by the use of experimental frontal analysis data.

Experimental data from a chromatographic system involving the adsorption of bovine serum albumin (BSA) onto porous anion-exchange adsorbent particles packed in a column are presented. The parameters that characterize the mass transfer mechanisms of intraparticle diffusion and convection are estimated by fitting the predictions of dynamic mathematical models describing adsorption in column systems having spherical perfusive and purely diffusive adsorbent particles to the experimental breakthrough data obtained from the column adsorption system. Both linear and nonlinear expressions for the equilibrium isotherm are considered. The values of the transport parameters are estimated in the time domain for the nonlinear adsorption models and in the Laplace transform domain for the linear adsorption models. The capabilities of the different models to describe satisfactorily the dynamic behavior of the adsorption system are compared. The dynamic nonlinear adsorption model for purely diffusive particles is found to describe most appropriately the dynamic behavior of the experimental chromatographic system studied in this work.