A scaled-up chromatographic system was used to separate two close-boiling components, diethylether and dichloromethane, by gas-liquid chromatography. The system was composed of 12 segmented columns and sixty solenoid valves controlled by a programmable controller.
Effects of various flow paths on outlet concentration profiles were investigated to find optimum conditions. Compared to conventional preparative chromatography, moving feed0injection and product-withdrawal made it possible to separate the feed mixtures continuously in two sections partition section and desorption section.
From the results of experiments, the operating principle of the desirable method was that within a certain time(switching time), less-absorbed component was obtained purely in the partition section, and in the desorption section the remained components were separated by increase in column length. Therefore, continuous separation can be achieved if the operations in the operations in the sections are performed within a switching time.