Adsorption characteristics of toluene and p-xylene in a reversed-phase C18 column for simulated moving bed chromatography

The adsorption equilibria and transport properties of toluene and p-xylene on a Eurosil 100-30-C-18 column were measured from a chromatographic response in a reversed-phase HPLC. Moment method was applied to the effluent peaks obtained from various temperatures and eluent compositions. The adsorption equilibrium constants were obtained from the first moment analysis. On the other hand, the transport properties such as the axial dispersion coefficient and effective diffusivity were obtained from the second moment analysis. The simulated results of the simulated moving bed process using the parameters obtained from the moment analysis agreed well with the experimental results. And the separation of toluene/ p-xylene mixture could be successfully separated by the simulated moving bed process.