What are the general guidelines for scaling up SEC separations?

There are four main steps for scaling up SEC separations. 

1. The first step is to optimize the separation at a small scale. 
1. For optimization, one must select a resin with a bed height providing the right resolution. 
2. A bed height between 30 and 100 cm is recommended for analytical separation. 
3. 10 cm is typically sufficient for buffer exchange and desalting. 
4. A proper column size should then be selected for the volume of the sample being used. 
5. Then, the highest flow rate that maintains resolution and minimizes separation time should be used. 
2. The next step is to maintain the sample-column volume ratio. It is recommended to keep the extra volume to less than one half of the total peak to get 90% of the maximum resolution from a column. 
3. In step 3, the bed height should be maintained  and column volume should be increased through increasing the cross-sectional area.
4. In step 4, one should run the separation at the same flow rate as used on the smaller column.