General Design Aspects - High Performance and Low-Pressure Systems

General Design Aspects - High Performance and Low-Pressure Systems 

The chromatographic column is responsible for performing the purification, and the chromatography system is responsible for optimizing the separation. 

The system vhen connected to the column has to avoid any kind of mixing before or after the column. Therefore, the system needs to be designed to minimize the dispersion vithin its different elements. For a targeted flow rate, the different elements have to be minimized to find a good compromise between internal volume and induced pressure drop. 

A chromatographic system is always a combination of compromises between chromatographic and technical constraints. 

For FiPLC systems, the stationary phases often use small particles from 10 to 50 [xm, the number of plates generated by the chromatographic column can reach up to 50 000 plates per meter. The constraint of avoiding any kind of dispersion is then a major priority. An important action to minimize the dispersion from the moment the feed is introduced to the moment where the fractions are collected is to reduce volumes and to design smooth coimections between the different parts of the plant. Small piping diameters are also a requirement because the operating pressure introduced by the column can go up to 50 bars or even higher. HPLC systems are mainly used for the separation of fine chemicals and small pharmaceutical molecules. 

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