Relative importance of column and adsorption parameters on the productivity in preparative liquid chromatography. I: investigation of a chiral separation system.

Starting out from an experimental chiral separation system we have used computer simulations for a systematic investigation on how the maximum productivity depends on changes in column length, packing particle size, column efficiency, back pressure, sample concentration/solubility, selectivity, retention factor of the first eluting component and monolayer saturation capacity. The study was performed by changing these parameters, one at a time, and then calculating the corresponding change in maximum productivity. The three most important parameters for maximum production rate was found to be (i) the selectivity (ii) the retention factor of the first eluting component and (iii) the column length. Surprisingly, the column efficiency and sample concentration/solubility were of minor importance. These findings can be used as rough guidelines for column selection, e.g. a low-efficiency column are more likely perform better, in terms of productivity, than a high-efficiency column that have higher retention factor for the first eluting component.