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May 19, 2021, Capabilities

Simulated Moving Bed (SMB) Chromatography and Continuous Ion Exchange (CIX)

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Overview SMB is a scalable chromatographic technology that simulates the counter current motion of the solids stationary phase against the liquid eluent. SMB technology is used today for continuous chromatographic separations at the commodity scale. For example, parrafins are separated from kerosine to produce straight run Jet A fuel, sugar is purified, and xylenes are purified using an SMB among many other commodity examples. The BioProcessing Separations Consortium is pushing the state of the art in SMB technology by undertaking research in advanced modes of SMB operation such Expand Bed Adsorption (EBA-SMB), reactive SMBs, and unique column configurations to enable new applications of SMB technology in traditionally difficult to handle bioprocess streams.
National Laboratory National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
Additional Information
(A) Cartoon depiction of the principle of operation of CCC. Here a crude sample is injected into a separatory funnel, and individual components migrate into the upper and lower phase based on their partition coefficients. Lower phase is pumped through to carry the crude mixture through a series extractions. Eventually, all of the compounds exit the system in the lower phase chromatographically separating one from another. (B) image of a J-type centrifuge and mixing zones that occur in the tube on the outer tubing of the bobbin during rotation in a CCC instrument. (C) Image of a commercially available full scale CCC skid.