A three-column ion-exchange system was designed, fabricated and computer-automated to accommodate a novel 'elution looping' process developed by Dr. Tim Durance (U.B.C. Department of Food Science) during his doctoral studies on the recovery of lysozyme and avidin. This processing technique enhances the simultaneous recovery of these two pharmaceutically important proteins from chicken egg albumen. The processing system prototype was sized to handle throughput rates between approximately five and 300 liters per day of albumen to facilitate both laboratory and small commercial scale work. Very efficient use is made of the ion-exchange resin due to a two-column cascaded feed arrangement. The processing control software was designed to provide flexibility and ease of operation in setting up new and existing method files, allowing for the selection of any column or group of columns to use and providing a 'staged-shutdown' approach toward handling columns fouled with congealed albumen during unattended operation. This approach attempts to maximize the productivity of the system even when one or two of the columns has become fouled with congealed albumen. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Chemical and Biological Engineering, Department of / Graduate