Comparative Study of Modified Simulated Moving Bed Systems at Optimal Conditions for the Separation of Ternary Mixtures under Nonideal Conditions

Separation of a ternary mixture based on the simulated moving bed (SMB) technology was studied. The conventional four-zone SMB system was modified into two different configurations in order to facilitate the simultaneous collection of all three components. The performances of the two modified systems were compared at optimal conditions for varying adsorption selectivity, mass-transfer resistance, and nonlinearity in adsorption-isotherm parameters. Comparative studies were made at optimal conditions in each case based on rigorous multiobjective optimization using elitist nondominated sorting genetic algorithm with jumping genes as the optimization technique.