Breakthrough curve modeling for lysozyme by ion-exchange nanofiber membrane: Linear and nonlinear analysis

•Weak ion-exchange nanofiber exhibits an effective capture for lysozyme.•At pH 9, the EBC value was approximately 698.91 mg/g.•A comparison was made between linear and nonlinear analyses on the breakthrough curves.•Breakthrough curves were well-fitted by the Yoon-Nelson model. Nanofibers prepared by electrospinning technology are widely used as an adsorber in protein purification processes. However, the evaluation of dynamic adsorption performance has not been reported yet. Lysozyme was subjected to assess dynamic adsorption of weak ion exchange nanofiber membranes by applying a continuous flow system. Different operating conditions were selected to study the lysozyme adsorption breakthrough curve, which included four factors: pH, feedstock lysozyme concentration, feed flow rate, and stacked membrane layers. The breakthrough curve was applied to analyze the performance for dynamic binding with lysozyme as a model protein. In addition, the adsorption models (Bohart-Adams, Thomas, Yoon-Nelson, and BDST) were fitted to the breakthrough curves using linear and nonlinear regression analysis. It was found that the four operating parameters had considerable influences on the dynamic adsorption performance. Among these models, the breakthrough curve was well-fitted by using linear regression analysis of the Yoon-Nelson model. The breakthrough curve characteristics could be used to describe the dynamic binding performance of interested membranes to lysozyme molecules.