Preparative chromatography is a widely used unit operation in downstream processing. A major step for its implementation is the choice of the process concept. The most popular concept is batch chromatography (BC), which is easy to implement. But also the more complex simulated moving bed chromatography (SMBC) has reached a high significance over the last years. Between these two concepts, closed loop recycling (CLRC) and steady state recycling chromatography (SSRC) promise higher performance than BC and less complexity than SMBC. This paper will analyze the advantages and disadvantages of CLRC and SSRC compared to the both BC and SMBC. These four chromatographic concepts for different separation tasks are compared by dynamic process simulation. Therefore, six isotherms for two component systems are generated and three different feed compositions are regarded. For each case, all mentioned process concepts are optimized and compared with regard to performance. The results show that CLRC and SSRC can be a good choice, especially for difficult separations. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.