Expanding Simulated Moving Bed Chromatography into Ternary Separations in Analogy to Dividing Wall Column Distillation

• Published in: Industrial & engineering chemistry research 2020-05, Vol.59 (20), p.9619-9628
• Main Author: Lee, Ju Weon
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0888-5885; 1520-5045
• DOI: 10.1021/acs.iecr.0c00572

Chromatographic separation techniques are widely applied for complex separations. For binary or pseudo-binary separation problems, it is well known that continuous chromatographic separation processes, such as simulated moving bed (SMB) chromatography, are efficient and cost-effective compared to batch or semicontinuous chromatographic separation processes. However, it is still challenging to design a suitable continuous chromatographic process for ternary separations because of its operational and structural complexity. In this work, a new SMB process concept for ternary separations is introduced, considering the operational similarity between SMB chromatography and fractional distillation. Especially, dividing wall column distillation, which is nowadays well-established and widely used for multicomponent fractional distillation, is adopted for a novel continuous SMB design concept by parallelizing the zones to two layers. A modified shortcut design method for the new design concept is presented in case of linear adsorption isotherms. This new concept is validated in the simulation study and compared with alternative SMBs.