On-line monitoring of enantiomer concentration in chiral simulated moving bed chromatography

Simulated moving bed chromatography is a key technology for the pilot and production scale separation of enantiomers of chiral chemical species. Product quality control is probably the most important issue in this kind of separation at both scales, and for this it is clear that on-line monitoring of absolute enantiomer concentrations plays a major role. In this work, an on-line system consisting of a UV detector and a polarimeter in series is used to monitor the composition of the extract and raffinate streams of a laboratory SMB unit. The model system adopted is the separation of the enantiomers of the Tröger’s base on microcrystalline cellulose triacetate (CTA) using ethanol as mobile phase. The technique is effective and accurate, thus providing promising perspectives for SMB process control and dynamic optimization.