While normally considered an expensive technology, chromatography has been used for very large-scale applications for similar to 50 years. Main successes reported in the petrochemical or sugar industries are obtained with systems having the characteristics of being counter-current and continuous. These systems are the first generation of a lineage that has developed over the past decades to successfully address various purification needs including amino acid production, optical isomers separation, various biopharrmceuticals capture or polishing. The objective of the article is to show how continuous chromatography has adapted and continues to adapt to ever-changing purification needs.