A NEW PROCESS FOR MULTICOMPONENT CONTINUOUS SEPARATION BY COMBINING MULTIPLE LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHY COLUMNS

As a method for making liquid chromatography a continuous operation, a simulated moving-bed adsorber has been applied. This method is applicable only to two-component mixtures. Hence a new process for multicomponent separation by combining multiple liquid chromatography columns was proposed. Its applicability was confirmed partly by experiments with a single column in the process and partly by simulation of the separation of dimethyl phthalate, diethyl phthalate, and di-n-butyl phthalate. The results showed that a mixture of more than three components can be separated and refined by use of this process. The values of distribution coefficient and overall mass transfer coefficient for each component required for the simulation were obtained from impulse response experiments, using the same column.