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Abstract

In this contribution, simple methods are presented for controlling a simulated moving bed chromatographic process with standard PI controllers. A first method represents a simple and model-free inferential controlscheme which was motivated from common distillation column control. The SMB unit is equipped with UV measurements. The UV signals in the four separation zones of the unit are fixed by four corresponding PI controllers calculating the ratio of liquid and solid flow in the respective separation zone. In order to be able to adjust the product purity a second, model-based control scheme is proposed. It makes use of the nonlinear wave propagation phenomena in the apparatus. The controlled chromatographic unit is automatically working with minimum solvent consumption and maximum feed throughput without any numerical optimization calculations. This control algorithm can therefore also be applied for fast optimization of SMB processes. copyright 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. [accessed 2013 November 29th]