Simulation of Separation of a Racemic Mixture of Ibuprofen by Supercritical Fluid Chromatography in Simulated Moving Bed

Separation of a racemic mixture of ibuprofen at a low concentration level by supercritical fluid chromatography in a simulated moving bed (SFC-SMB) is investigated by simulation. The feasibility of ibuprofen enantiomers separation has been experimentally examined in the literature. Our simulation results show that separation of ibuprofen enantiomers is feasible by this method, and R-ibuprofen and S-ibuprofen products with purity of over 99% can be obtained, which agrees with experimental data in the literature. For initial studies, the triangular theory is used to find the operating conditions. This simulation shows that the application of the triangular diagram is valuable in cases where none of the operating conditions is available. The operating point conditions, such as streams flow rates and switching time, are obtained with this method. Also, the effect of the location of the selected operating points in the triangular diagram on operating conditions, purity, and concentration of the products are investigated. In triangle theory, the optimal operating point should be near the vertex of the triangle diagram with a safety margin, to obtain products with high purity. The simulation also confirms that selecting the operating point away from the vertex of the triangular diagram will lead to diluted products.