PRESSURE-DROP IN CENTRIFUGAL PARTITION CHROMATOGRAPHY

Centrifugal partition chromatography (CPC) is more and more becoming a valuable alternative for conventional preparative chromatographic pro cesses. Pressure drop is one of the main limitations hampering optimum performance of a CPC. A model is presented for the pressure drop over a CPC column. The pressure drop consists of two contributions: the hy drodynamic pressure drop, caused by the how of liquid through the narr ow ducts, and the hydrostatic pressure drop, caused by the difference in density between the liquids in the channels and the ducts, and by t he centrifugal force. The model contains two adjustable parameters tha t can be obtained independently by fitting experimental pressure drop data. Two types of column geometries have been tested. The model descr ibes the experimental data well. The total pressure drop is mainly due to the hydrostatic pressure drop.