ULTRAFILTRATION OF ALBUMIN ETHANOL SOLUTIONS ON MINERAL MEMBRANES

This paper investigates the ultrafiltration of albumin-ethanol solutions on ZrO2 mineral membranes for the preparation of human albumin from plasma. The classical process consists of a preconcentration phase of a 20% ethanol-albumin 7.5 g/L solution to raise albumin concentration to 80 g/L, then a diafiltration to reduce ethanol concentration to less than 0.3 g/L, and a final concentration to adjust albumin concentration to its final value of 210 g/L. The potential advantages of mineral membranes relative to the polysulfone membranes presently used are a longer membrane life and higher permeate fluxes in the presence of ethanol. In addition, they lend themselves to the use of back flushing or pulsatile flows for reducing membrane fouling. Using 2.7 mm i.d. Carbosep membranes with a 10 kd cut-off and velocities of 7 m/s, permeate fluxes of 40 L/h.m2 at 4-degrees-C were obtained with 50 g/L albumin, 20% ethanol solutions representative of the preconcentration phase, while 45 to 50 L/h.m2 were obtained at albumin concentrations of 100 g/L without ethanol at 8-degrees-C, representative of the final concentration phase. These fluxes compare favorably with fluxes obtained previously in our laboratory with polysulfone membranes which were respectively of 22 and 40 L/h.m2 for the same solutions. This study confirms the expectation of a smaller reduction in the presence of ethanol of the permeate flux for the mineral membranes while albumin concentration in the permeate remained generally under 0.4 g/L irrespective of retentate concentration. The superposition of pressure and flow pulsations on the filter inlet by a piston-in-cylinder system decreases concentration polarization and increases permeate flux by 50 to 60% as compared with steady flows under the same conditions.