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Experimental evaluation of designs for the simulated countercurrent moving bed separator
Author(s) -
Tonkovich Anna Lee Y.,
Carr Robert W.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
aiche journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.958
H-Index - 167
eISSN - 1547-5905
pISSN - 0001-1541
DOI - 10.1002/aic.690420309
Subject(s) - countercurrent exchange , separator (oil production) , chromatography , simulated moving bed , chemistry , volumetric flow rate , inlet , dimethyl ether , effluent , analytical chemistry (journal) , adsorption , mechanics , environmental science , thermodynamics , environmental engineering , methanol , engineering , mechanical engineering , physics , organic chemistry
Simulated countercurrent chromatography is a continuous flow method for separation of binary mixtures or for separation of multicomponent mixtures into two fractions. Countercurrent flow is simulated by moving the feed point past several fixed adsorbent beds at a rate between the single column breakthrough time of each component. The number of columns and the location of the inlet and outlet port were varied to investigate product purity and productivity. Concentration profiles of the effluent product streams were measured. The maximum product concentration exceeds the feed concentration during part of the feed‐switching cycle and drops to zero during part of the cycle. Three configurations were tested with the total number of columns varying between three and eight. For the test separation chosen, gaseous propylene and dimethyl ether on Chromosorb 101, high purity (> 99%) product streams were obtained with an optimal four‐column configuration using three desorbent streams.