BREAKTHROUGH OF LYSOZYME THROUGH AN AFFINITY MEMBRANE OF CELLULOSE-CIBACRON BLUE

The dynamic affinity adsorption of lysozyme through stacked flat-sheet cellulose membranes with immobilized cibacron blue 3GA was studied and compared to three affinity-membrane models: diffusion model to explore the importance of axial and radial diffusion; variation model to study the effects of pore-size distribution or thickness variation; and stack model to investigate the effects of stacking flat-sheet membranes. For the diffusion model, when Pe(r)>0.1, radial diffusional resistance is significant, but when Pe(z)<25, axial dispersion must be considered. For the variation model, increasing pore-size distribution or nonuniform membrane thickness greatly broadens the breakthrough curve. The stack model shows that the stacking of membranes significantly sharpens the breakthrough curves by averaging out the flow dispersion due to pore-size distribution or thickness variation.