阅读说明：本技术 借助于处理容器清洁色谱填充床材料以及所述容器 (Cleaning of chromatography packed bed material by means of a processing vessel and said vessel ) 是由 马塞卢斯·约翰尼斯·许贝特斯·瑞德 于 2020-05-04 设计创作，主要内容包括：一种填充床凝胶材料清洁容器具有内部处理体积,所述内部处理体积用于容纳凝胶,由圆周的轴向延伸的直立容器壁界定,所述直立容器壁在两个轴向端处由顶部容器壁和相对的底部容器壁密封,所述内部处理体积大于10升；所述容器的传感器监测所述容器的填充水平。底部过滤器完全覆盖容器底壁。圆周的轴向延伸的圆柱形竖直过滤器以与直立容器壁在内部相距短的径向距离设置,例如介于1毫米与20毫米之间,与所述直立容器壁平行且同心,从而提供与所述直立容器壁同心的环面状流动间隙。(A packed bed gel material cleaning vessel having an internal process volume for containing a gel, bounded by a circumferential, axially extending upright vessel wall sealed at both axial ends by a top vessel wall and an opposing bottom vessel wall, the internal process volume being greater than 10 litres; a sensor of the container monitors a fill level of the container. The bottom filter completely covers the container bottom wall. A circumferential, axially extending cylindrical vertical filter is arranged at a short radial distance from the inside of the upstanding vessel wall, for example between 1 and 20 mm, parallel to and concentric with the upstanding vessel wall, providing a toroidal flow gap concentric with the upstanding vessel wall.)

1. A packed bed gel material cleaning vessel having an internal process volume for containing a gel, bounded by a circumferential axially extending upstanding vessel wall (during normal operation of the vessel) sealed at both axial ends by a top vessel wall and an opposed bottom vessel wall, the internal process volume being greater than 10 litres; a sensor of the container monitors a fill level of the container;

the container is "hygienic" and all surfaces defining the space containing the gel or liquid flowing into or out of the gel are mirror finished with stainless steel.

2. The container according to claim 1, having the following features:

a bottom filter extending immediately above the container bottom wall such that liquid inside the container can only pass through the bottom filter into a space inside the container at an opposite side of the bottom filter;

a lower container volume below the bottom filter, wherein liquid passing downward through the bottom filter is collected inside the container, above the bottom container wall, and below the bottom filter;

a separate bottom particulate discharge port located in the axial center of the bottom filter to discharge an upper container volume (located above the bottom filter and containing gel) from the container to the exterior through the container bottom wall; this bottom particulate discharge port is sealed from the lower vessel volume below the bottom filter and is in fluid communication with the upper vessel volume above the bottom filter via a discharge conduit sealingly penetrating the bottom filter and the vessel bottom wall;

an external passageway to and from the lower vessel volume below the bottom filter is provided by a bottom discharge port and sealed from an external passageway to and from an upper vessel volume via the bottom particulate discharge port; liquid which is free of gel particles and can therefore pass through the bottom filter can thus be extracted from or added to the upper container volume via the bottom filter and the bottom discharge port, respectively, from the lower container volume (arrow D), while gel can be extracted from or added to the upper container volume via the bottom particle discharge port, independently or simultaneously (arrow B); a circumferential axially extending cylindrical vertical filter disposed internally at a short radial distance, for example, between 1 and 20 mm, from the upstanding container wall, parallel and concentric with the upstanding container wall, providing a toroidal flow gap concentric with the upstanding container wall, and preferably sealed at its lower and upper edges to the bottom filter and the container bottom wall and the container upstanding wall, respectively;

the top edge of this vertical filter is above the maximum filling level of the container (for gel);

a vertical filter drain port in an outer wall of the container, acting as a liquid passage (arrow C) into the flow gap at the lowest point of the vertical filter;

a mixer, axial to the vessel, equipped with vessel internal blades near and above the vessel bottom filter to agitate the contents of the upper vessel volume.

3. The container of claim 1 or 2, said top container wall being equipped with a container inlet tube and a hand access;

the container inlet pipe is designed to deliver liquid from above against the vertical axis of the mixer at an angle of 45 degrees relative to the container axial direction, so as to come out just at the maximum filling level; the mixer shaft acts as a guide for the liquid further down into the gel.

4. A container according to any one of claims 1 to 3, the container bottom wall being provided with a recess therein; said grooves are straight and designed to collect and distribute the liquid over the entire surface of the bottom wall of the container; a long groove and a short groove branched from the long groove are arranged; each long flute exits at a central outlet port and extends radially outwardly to the outer circumference of the upstanding vessel wall, and a short flute branches from each long flute at a location between opposite longitudinal ends of the long flute; the pattern of the grooves resembles a leaf pattern.

5. The vessel according to any one of claims 1 to 4, a suspension of a mixer agitator shaft (33) being provided with a washing system mounted on top of the vessel, such that a gap (44) is provided around the shaft (33) in fluid communication with an inlet channel (42) and an outlet channel (43), such that liquid can flow through the gap, from the inlet channel to the outlet channel, wherein the gap, which is completely filled with liquid, provides a liquid sleeve circumferentially and axially around the drive shaft, such that the drive shaft is wetted and/or washed.

6. The vessel according to any one of claims 1 to 5, the suspension of the mixer stirrer shaft (33) being provided with means, such as a bellows (41), which provides a preferably axially expandable housing for a drive shaft part which is displaced between above and below the top plate (31) while changing between a high position and a low position.

7. The vessel of any one of claims 1 to 6, the filter comprising at least two layers of stainless steel braided wire stacked directly on top of each other to provide a combined assembly, the pore size of each layer differing from the pore size of an immediately adjacent layer by at least 20%; the layer is directly exposed to the gel in the container.

8. A method of cleaning a gel used for a packed bed chromatography column by using the cleaning vessel according to any one of claims 1 to 6, the gel comprising beads having a diameter between 10 and 1100 microns (0.01-1.1 mm), wherein after use in a liquid chromatography separation column, the gel is removed from the column and introduced into an upper vessel volume to make it ready for use again, wherein a process liquid is added to the gel within the vessel and a mixture of the gel and the process liquid in a mixed state within the upper vessel volume is stirred by a vessel mixer;

during processing of the gel, liquid is supplied to the upper container volume via the bottom particle discharge port (arrow B), thus located above the bottom filter, and via the container inlet pipe (arrow a), and filtered liquid is withdrawn from the lower container volume via the bottom discharge port after passing through the relevant filter (arrow D) and from the flow gap between the vertical filter and the upright container wall via the vertical filter discharge port (arrow C).

9. The method of claim 8, at the end of processing the gel, stopping the supply of liquid via the bottom particle discharge port (arrow B) and the container inlet tube (arrow a), and concentrating the gel contents within the upper container volume by continuing to remove filtered liquid via the bottom discharge port (arrow D) and the vertical filter discharge port (arrow C); and/or stopping the removal of filtered liquid.

10. Method according to claim 8 or 9, applying a "floating bed" drain, preferably after stopping the liquid supply and/or removing filtered liquid, wherein liquid is supplied to the upper container volume via the bottom filter and the bottom drain port, thus flowing from the bottom drain port in the bottom wall up through the bottom filter into the upper container volume (opposite arrow D); this results in a local dilution of the mixture just above the bottom filter, resulting in a floating bed on which the gel mixture floats.

11. The method of any one of claims 8 to 10, wherein during a "floating bed" drain, the supplied liquid flows from the bottom drain port into and along the grooves such that the liquid is evenly distributed over the top surface of the bottom plate and then through the bottom filter, evenly distributed over the top surface of the bottom filter, and thereby creating a "floating bed" evenly distributed over the top surface of the bottom filter; and/or

During "floating bed" discharge, the bottom particle discharge port is open and the resulting "floating bed" allows the gel to flow easily into the bottom particle discharge port under the force of gravity, thereby avoiding leaving particulate residue on the upper surface of the bottom filter facing the top vessel wall.

12. The method of any one of claims 8 to 11, the filter surface facing the interior of the container being such that gel cannot enter the cavity of the filter, i.e. the filter surface porosity is less than the bead size of gel; this allows the beads of gel to stay on top of the filter surface at all times.