Patent ID: 7678302

Claim:
A continuous process for the manufacture of agarose beads comprising: (a) heating an aqueous agarose solution to a temperature above the gelation point of the agarose; (b) adding the heated-solution to a first hydrophobic liquid containing a water-in-oil stabilizing emulsifier, wherein the liquid is heated to a temperature such that the resulting emulsion is at or above the gelation temperature of the agarose solution and has a continuous and a discontinuous phase in which the hydrophobic liquid is the continuous phase and the agarose solution is the discontinuous phase; (c) flowing the emulsion through a static mixer to form agarose droplets; (d) adding the droplets into a second hydrophobic liquid cooled to a temperature below that of the gelation point of the agarose to gel the agarose droplets into beads; and (e) recovering the agarose beads from the second liquid.