Performance and Economics in Micropreparative Capillary Electrophoresis of Oligosaccharides

Abstract The advantages of micropreparative capillary gel electrophoresis include very high resolution, high speed and good recovery, with full automation. Nanomolar quantities of biopolymers, such as complex carbohydrates, can be collected for use in subsequent microsequencing or mass spectrometry. As in other preparative separation processes, the goal in preparative capillary gel electrophoresis is to maximize the production of a product with a given purity in the shortest time, i.e., to achieve the highest throughput. Another important factor is the economics of the operation. The cost of production in preparative capillary electrophoresis is a function of the cost of the automated system, the loading capacity of the capillary column and the system cycle time. Here we suggest a simple economic model for analyzing the economics of preparative capillary electrophoresis.