Improvement in industrial re-chromatography (recycling) procedure in solvent gradient bio-separation processes

Re-chromatography or recycling impure products obtained from the batch runs of solvent gradient chromatography is commonly practiced in industry to improve product yield. However, as the re-chromatography steps are carried out at the expense of running fresh batches, any improvement in the yield comes as a trade-off with the production time, and hence productivity. In recent studies, on the other hand, it has been suggested that with a properly designed recycling process one can not only improve the yield, but the productivity as well. That study, however, considered a steady-state recycling process, a technology yet to be implemented with bio-chromatographic systems. In the present paper we are reporting a study made on non-steady-state recycling or re-chromatography, as it is typically done in industrial practice. The results point out an amendment to the standard way of designing solvent gradients, which is necessary to improve both the yield and the productivity of an industrial run with recycle. Although the test case used here was the separation of an industrial peptide, Calcitonin, in a reversed-phase column, the general methodology of gradient manipulation, needless to say, is also valid for other solvent gradient processes like ion-exchange, HIC, etc.