OPTIMIZATION OF A LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHIC SEPARATION PROCESS

A strategy to find the optimal operating parameters in chromatographic separation is developed. The parameters to be optimized are the period of injection, the distance between two consecutive injections, (cycle time) and the switching times for collecting the product. The work comprises both simulation and optimization procedures, where the first one is used within the optimization step for computing the objective function. For the simulation procedure, an ideal linear chromatography with equilibrium model is implemented. Since the analytical solution for the model is available, the simulation step is not a limiting factor during the optimization phase. From the numerical results obtained, it was observed that the optimal value of the injection time period decreases when the purity requested increases, while the cycle time becomes more large.