Biotechnological and Biomedical Applications of Magnetically Stabilized and Fluidized Beds - Porous Media: Applications in Biological Systems and Biotechnology - page 477

pH probe

Sampling
port

Data
Acquisition

pH controller Acid

pH 5.50 HPLC

350.21

Scale

Fluid-bed reactor
with Pd/Fe catalyst

Pump

FIGURE 12.11
Schematic of the experimental setup of the application of MSFBs with
Fe 3 O 4 /alginate complexes to the chlorophenol dehalogenation. (From Gra-
ham et al. 2006.)

Unusual applications like the purification of caprolactam (Menga et al.
2003) or bilirubin removal (Uzun and Denizli 2006) may also be found in
recent literature, and while in the former, simple ferromagnetic beads of a
novel amorphous nickel alloy catalyst (SRNA-4) are used, in the latter typi-
cal mPHEMA particles are used with human serum albumin immobilized on
them. The process setup for the latter application is similar to the ones used
for protein purification, opposite to the experimental setup of the former,
which is constituted by a MSFB reactor with some previous pretreatment of
the process flow.
Applications exist were Fe 3 O 4 /alginate complexes (as the one shown in
Figure 12.7) are used (Bohm and Pittermann 2000). An example is the
chlorophenol dehalogenation (Graham et al. 2006). In this case the process
setup is not the conventional one, as may be seen in Figure 12.11.

12.6 Conclusion and Future Perspectives
MSBs and MFBs have been subject of study and development for more than
six decades. However, biotechnological and biomedical applications of MSFBs
appeared only more recently. In this chapter, the main features of MSFBs
were reviewed, including the background theory and main principles of oper-
ation. The main biotechnological and biomedical applications of MSFBs are
described, including enzyme immobilization for bioreactions, protein sepa-
ration, magnetic chromatography, immunoglobulin G separation, antibody
removal, separation of cells and nucleic acids, purification of caprolactam,
bilirubin removal, and environmental improvements. The magnetic particles
(beads) used in these applications were also reviewed and described.