Generation Process and Performance Evaluation of Engineered Microsphere Agarose Adsorbent for Application in Fluidized-bed Systems

In this research, the generation process of engineered microsphere agarose adsorbent has been explained that has surfaces with different active sites to adsorb protein nanoparticles into the fluidized-bed system. Also, excellent selectivity of protein nanoparticles, high adsorption capacity, and fast equilibrium rate through the eco-friendly polymeric adsorbents were vital aims in here. Hence, agarose as a cheap, and abundant natural polymer, with a ferromagnetic condenser, and dye-ligand adsorbents, were employed to generate the engineered microsphere agarose adsorbent. Then, the performance of produced adsorbents was evaluated in the batch and fluidized-bed system. Scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, and optical microscope were used. Results showed the shape of adsorbents is spherical, with the size distribution range of 50-250 µm, the porosity of around 90%, and the wet density of 2.6 g/mL. Then, to compare the performance of the engineered adsorbents in a fluidized-bed system, the dye ligand was immobilized on the Streamline™. The obtained results were compared at the same conditions. In batch adsorption tests, the results of lactoferrin nanoparticle adsorption were shown higher dynamic binding capacity with engineered microsphere agarose adsorbents. Also, the results demonstrated that more than 75% of the adsorption process occurred in the first half-hour, which is a very suitable time for a fluidized-bed system. Also, adsorption equilibrium data were evaluated with isothermal adsorption models, and Langmuir’s model suits the data, and the maximum of adsorption was close to 45.3 mg/mL adsorbent. The fluidized-bed adsorption tests showed that engineered adsorbents gained a sound breakthrough performance at high flow velocity and upper dynamic binding capacity compared to commercial adsorbents. The dynamic binding capacity at 10% breakthrough achieved 71% of the flooded adsorption process at the major fluid velocity of 348 cm/h, so the engineered adsorbent has been proved the good potential for use in high flow rate fluidized-bed systems.