Ternary Separations with One‐Column Analogs to SMB

Abstract

Analogs, recycled chromatography systems that mimic SMBs, for both a cascade of two four‐zone SMBs and five‐zone SMBs performing ternary separations are designed and analyzed. The basic Analog consists of one column and several mixed tanks equal to the number of columns in the mimicked SMB. Analogs with mixed tanks give lower purities than the SMBs because of mixing in the tanks. For example, the five‐zone SMB with one column per zone achieved a purity index (PI) of 88.3, while the Analog with five mixed tanks has a PI of 83.4. If the tanks are divided into smaller tanks the purity improves, and for the Analog to be the five‐zone SMB using 10 tanks the PI was 85.4. Analogs with a single unmixed reservoir were also designed for a cascade of two four‐zone SMBs with one column per zone. This reservoir reduces the mixing and improves the separation. For example, a cascade of two four‐SMBs with one column per zone achieved a PI of 86.7; the Analog to this SMB with 8 mixed tanks achieved a PI of 82.9, while the Analog with an unmixed reservoir achieved a PI of 84.6.

Keywords:

• SMB
• analog
• ternary separation
• unmixed reservoir

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by NSF grant CTS‐0211208. Discussions with Jin‐Seok Hur and Dr. Jeung‐Kun Kim were very helpful to improve this paper.