Evaluation of novel 3D-printed monolithic adsorbers against conventional chromatography columns for the purification of c-phycocyanin from Spirulina

Abstract

Abstract Extraction and purification of high-grade phycobiliproteins is a multistep process that typically involves costly chromatographic separation techniques. 3D printing approaches and materials can now be tailored to fabricate low-cost anion exchange monolithic adsorbers for chromatography. In this work, a new printing formulation was used to produce monolithic discs with quaternary amine functionality. The 3D-printed discs were tested for the purification of the phycobiliproteins c-phycocyanin and allophycocyanin from extracts of the cyanobacterium Arthrospira platensis (Spirulina). Analytical grade c-phycocyanin with 41\xa0±\xa07% recovery was obtained with the 3D-printed discs in a single step. The 3D-printed discs also demonstrated similar or higher separation properties when compared with commercial Q-Sepharose and commercial monolithic discs. Reproducibility tests showed that the fabrication of the 3D-printed discs was robust and potentially scalable for industry-scale purification. Overall, the operative flexibility, robustness and separation performance of the 3D-printed discs demonstrated the promising potential of monolithic adsorbers for the separation of a wide range of biomolecules.