Supervisory system for automated simulated moving bed (SMB) liquid chromatography (LC)

Abstract

Praziquantel (PZQ) is a racemic mixture prescribed for Schistosomiasis disease treatment. However, only the enantiomer (R)-PZQ presents demonstrated efficiency against infirmity; the (S)-PZQ causes sickness and vomiting due to its bitter taste. The simulated moving bed chromatography system (SMB) is a well-established separation process applied in many branches of the chemical industry from drug purification stages to food processing systems. In order to implement and operate an SMB for the PZQ separation, allowing the production of medication with proven efficiency and without side effects, a LabVIEW supervisory system was developed. The automated software remotely controlled all equipment in the operational unit, such as automatic pumps, multi-position valves for flow rate alignments, and a chiral detector. Two experiments were conducted to characterize the system’s operational properties and efficiency. The first set of results demonstrated that the data acquisition programming retrieved information constantly, evidencing a direct correlation between the internal liquid pressure and the valve system position, with mean pressure values of approximately 50 bar. The second set of results demonstrated the SMB efficiency, with the raffinate stream producing (R)-PZQ of 100% purity.

Keywords:

• Automated process
• liquid chromatography (LC)
• praziquantel
• simulated moving bed (SMB)

Author contributions

Romulo Holanda was responsible for the conceptualization, methodology, formal analysis, investigation, original draft, and software development. Felipe Cunha was responsible for reviewing/editing drafts, validating data, and supervising. Argimiro Secchi was responsible for resources, supervising, and project administration. Amaro Barreto Jr. was responsible for resources and supervision.

Competing interests

The authors declare that there are no relevant financial or non-financial competing interests.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The group would like to thank FAPERJ for the project’s financial support, the National Council of Scientific Development (CNPq) and CAPES for granting the scholarships, and Petrobras for the laboratory’s financial support.