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VacuCon®

The VacuCon® Concentrator offers simple and fast ultrafiltration concentration of samples greater than 50mL. This breakthrough device can quickly concentrate 50–200mL to very high concentration factors, up to 100-fold. All you need to operate the VacuCon® concentrator is a conventional vacuum source!

Walk-away operation means that once you add your sample to the feed reservoir and vacuum is connected, you can walk away from the concentrator – the device self-primes and terminates permeation automatically, releasing you from having to constantly observe the concentration process. When you return to the device, just disconnect the vacuum and recover the retentate fraction or concentrate into a syringe.

Buffer exchange or washing of the retentate in situ is possible in a subsequent operation with the VacuCon® system.

VacuCon Concentrator Performance Summary

A diagram of a three-quarters view of a vacucon system. The system consists of a square plate embossed with 'SPF TECHNOLOGIES' on the upper left side, and 'VACUCON' on the lower right. The plate is labeled as the 'separation element'. The plate sits on top of a large reservoir, labeled 'permeate collector', that takes up roughly half the image. On top of the plate, there is a smaller reservoir with an open top, labeled 'feed reservoir', connected to the top of the plate near the lower left side, and a 1mL syringe, labeled 'retentate collector', connected to the top of the plate near the upper right side.

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Easy to use

  • Unattended operation

  • Recover concentrate via syringe

  • Concentrated sample ends up in a dedicated receptable suitable for dispensing where desired

  • No additional hardware required

High performance

  • Up to a 100x concentration factor

  • Over 85% recovery

  • Under 1 hour

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VacuCon® Concentrator Process

The same VacuCon assembly pictured above, with a tube projecting outwards from the permeate area. The feed reservoir is shown filled with a light blue liquid.

Pour sample into feed reservoir

The same VacuCon assembly as the prior image, now with the Feed Reservoir empty and the permeate reservoir filled with the light blue liquid.

Turn on vacuum

Device concentrates until feed is consumed

The same VacuCon assembly as the prior image, the Feed Reservoir is empty, the Permeate Reservoir is full of a light blue liquid, now the retentate collector syringe is a pulled up and full of a dark blue liquid. This implies the concentration of the original sample within the retentate collector.

Turn off vacuum

Recover via syringe

Fast Permeation Means Getting More Experiments Done

Permeation of Two IgG Solutions
Permeation of Two Immunoglobulin G Solutions 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 Time (minutes) 20 40 60 80 100 120 Volume Permeated (mL) A set of axes for a line chart. The X-axis is in terms of time, and goes from 0 to 45 minutes. There are faint grid lines every 5 minutes labeled with their X-value. The Y-axis is in terms of volume permeated, and goes from 0 to 120 milliliters. There are faint grid lines every 20 milliliters labeled with their Y-value. 110mL 0.1mg ∕mL IgG 100mL 1mg ∕mL IgG A roughly logarithmic plot of the volume permeated through the VacuCon® over time for Immunoglobulin G at a concentration of 0.1 milligrams per milliliter, with a total volume of 110 milliliters. The overall slope of the plot is fairly steep: the plot runs through the approximate points (0, 0), (5, 40), and (15, 100). The full volume of 110 milliliters finishes permeating after 18 minutes. The plot is approximately linear after the 5-minute mark. A roughly logarithmic plot of the volume permeated through the VacuCon® over time for Immunoglobulin G at a concentration of 1 milligram per milliliter, with a total volume of 100 milliliters. The overall slope of the plot is moderately steep: the plot runs through the approximate points (0, 0), (5, 20), and (30, 80). The full volume of 100 milliliters finishes permeating after 41 minutes. The plot is approximately linear after the 15-minute mark.

Performance: Concentration and Recovery

Example concentration and recovery
*based on a vacuum pressure of 22inHg
Sample Sample Conc. Sample Vol. Recovery Vol. Yield Approx. Time* Vol. Conc. Factor
(mg∕mL) (mL) (mL) (%) (min)
BSA 1 33.9 1.12 86 7 30
BSA 1 50.4 1.14 88 15 44
IgG 0.1 107 1.12 94 20 95
IgG 1 52.6 1.10 85 20 48
IgG 1 97.8 1.14 80 45 86

95+% Protein recovery in a 3mL recovery volume

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Today's Lab Ultrafiltration for 50∼200mL: Not Fast…Not Easy

Concentration at the laboratory scale for volumes from 50mL to 1L isn't fast or easy. When a lab preparative sample of relatively large volume (e.g., 100mL) needs to be concentrated, it either needs to be split among several centrifugal concentrators or a complicated scaled-down TFF process system needs to be configured in the lab bench.

The centrifugal approach requires (a) a large centrifuge (not available in all laboratories) and (b) that the sample be split into multiple aliquots. The permeation is slow, resulting in a long spin time in addition to the time and effort spent handling the splitting and recombining aliquots. Finally, there is limited control over the recovery volumes and concentrations.

The scaled down process systems, such as miniature TFF systems, are complicated to configure. They require expensive hardware in pumps and valves. There is also an upper limit on the final concentration dictated by the system volume.

A Breakthrough Sample Concentrator for Large Samples

  • Ultrafiltration with walk-away operation

  • Concentrate 50–100mL down to 1mL in less than 1 hour

  • Faster, simpler sample processing than centifugal concentrators or scaled-down TFF systems

  • No additional hardware required: all you need is a source of vacuum

  • Optional buffer exchange in situ is possible

  • Optional recovery of the permeate

Applications

VacuCon® is the optimal solution for:

  • BSA Concentration: concentrate 1mg∕mL to 100x

  • Extracellular proteins and enzymes: concentrate 0.1mg∕mL to 100x

  • IgG: up to 10mg∕mL

  • Glycerol removal from antibodies, in lieu of overnight dialysis

  • DNA and RNA in gene therapy development

  • Vaccines

…and many more!

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