Simulated moving bed with a product column for improving the separation performance.

• A novel ProductCol strategy was proposed to improve SMB performances. • An additional column retreated the contaminated portion of product. • ProductCol operations were designed based on the equilibrium theory. • With proper conditions, ProductCol can outperform the classical SMB. Improving both the purity and recovery of the simulated moving-bed (SMB) chromatography is an important and challenging issue. Therefore, this study presents a novel operation strategy where a part of the SMB product with relatively low purity is retreated in an additional column, named as the product column (PC), for its further purification; this SMB method with PC is called ProductCol. Moreover, design criteria for selecting the operating variables, including flow rate, column length, and adsorbent properties in the PC, are suggested based on the equilibrium theory. Their effects on the separation performance were also investigated. The simulation results showed that the ProductCol process with sufficient flow rates and column lengths could outperform the classical SMB one in terms of purity and recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]