Affinity Partitioning and Its Potential in Biotechnology

Abstract

The affinity partitioning technique and its applications to biotechnological separations are reviewed. In spite of the great potential for large-scale continuous processing and the wide success in laboratory separations offered by the technique, relatively few reports of biotechnological applications have been made. This underutilization is attributed in part to the lack of design criteria for establishing and optimizing partitioning systems. A first step toward developing a thermodynamically based design model for affinity partitioning, based on the incorporation of a Gibbs energy model for phase equilibria in polymer solutions into a separate theory accounting for the affinity effect, is presented.