Sartorius Stedim Biotech Sartocon Slice 50 ECO crossflow filter

Sartorius Stedim Biotech has announced the small-scale Sartocon Slice 50 ECO crossflow device. The 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 lowers the recirculation pump requirements by as much as 50% versus a standard design. Only half of the pump energy is needed, decreasing the sheer stress on all protein solutions.

The device is offered as an encapsulated and ready-to-use crossflow module. Offered in a wide selection of molecular weight cut-offs, 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), is suitable 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 hydrophilic, making it non-protein-binding and virtually non-fouling. It is easy to clean and delivers high product flux and product yield.

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