Preparative enantioseparation by simulated moving bed chromatography

Simulated moving bed (SMB) chromatography was invented in the 1960s in the petrochemical industry and has since then been widely used to produce petrochemicals and sugars at the multi-ton scale. In the early 1990s its principle could be successfully adapted to chromatographic enantioseparation, due to developments in system design, chiral stationary phase synthesis and improvements in modelling and simulation of non-linear chromatographic behaviour. Since then a lot of separation systems have been brought into production, which are reviewed. In addition new developments are outlined in the field of system design and stationary phase development.