Development of a gradient elution preparative high performance liquid chromatography method for the recovery of the antibiotic ertapenem from crystallization process streams

A gradient elution preparative chromatography method was developed for the recovery of the antibiotic ertapenem from crystallization mother-liquor streams. The preparative HPLC method that was developed on the lab-scale employs an analytical size column of conventional dimensions (25 cm × 0.46 cm) packed with Kromasil C8 stationary phase. Gradient elution was used with aqueous acetic acid and acetonitrile as mobile phases. A target of processing approximately 30 mg of ertapenem per half an hour at a flow rate of 1.5 mL/min with high yield and adequate rejection of all major impurities was achieved. This corresponds to a productivity of ∼0.6 kg ertapenem as free acid per kilogram of stationary phase per day (kkd). The scalability of the method was demonstrated by using a 5 cm i.d. column configuration to generate 10 g of purified ertapenem. This work complements a previous study improving on the productivity and throughput of the method by employing gradient elution and the use of crystallization to remove some key impurities that are chromatographically difficult to resolve [A. Vailaya, P. Sajonz, O. Sudah, V. Capodanno, R. Helmy, F.D. Antia, J. Chromatogr. A 1079 (2005) 80].