New small-scale crossflow device for low-viscosity water-based protein solutions

Sartorius Stedim Biotech (SSB), a leading international supplier for the biopharmaceutical industry, has extended its product line of small-scale Sartocon® Slice 50 crossflow devices by Slice 50 ECO. This new crossflow filter has been specially designed for water-based protein solutions with viscosities below 3 cp. The crossflow cassette can typically be used in biotech applications, such as filtration of IgG, blood factors and peptides, especially involving membrane screening and small-volume process development. The reduced flow channel geometry of Sartocon® Slice 50 ECO lowers the recirculation pump requirements by as much as 50% versus a standard design. Only half of the pump energy is needed, considerably decreasing the sheer stress on all protein solutions.

Like the standard Slice 50 cassette, Sartocon® Slice 50 ECO is offered as an encapsulated and ready-to-use crossflow module. Offered in a wide selection of molecular weight cutoffs, it has a filter area of 50 cm2. The cGMP-validated self-contained filtration unit eliminates the need for a compression holder and is available in a choice of two polymers:

The first polymer, a stable polyethersulfone membrane (PESU) that is well established in the biopharmaceutical industry is ideal for a broad pH and temperature range. The second polymer, the Hydrosart® membrane, is a stable, cross-linked regenerated “cellulosic” polymer. It is also suitable for a broad pH range and can be cleaned and depyrogenated using up to 1 N NaOH at elevated temperatures. This membrane is extremely hydrophilic, making it non- protein-binding and virtually non-fouling. It is very easy to clean and delivers an exceptionally high product flux and product yield.

“With our new product, we are offering the industry a high-performance device for especially efficient filtration of low-volume aqueous protein solutions. Due to its features, such as low feed flow and low adsorption, Sartocon 50 ECO is a very cost-effective solution,” stated Frank Meyeroltmanns, expert for crossflow filtration at Sartorius Stedim Biotech.

Major benefits of the Sartocon® Slice 50 cassette are its scalability and identical materials of construction. These properties ease transfer of process development results to the next scale- up level. In addition, the new filter device can be readily interfaced with SSB’s benchtop crossflow system SARTOFLOW® Smart and with many other laboratory-scale filtration systems.