Chromatographic Reactors with Reactive Desorbents

The possibility of introducing, as a desorbent in a chromatographic reactor, a reactive desorbent that removes the most strongly retained component by chemical reaction and not by purely physical desorption has been investigated. The principle is demonstrated in the case of the esterification of glycerol with acetic acid using a mixture of acetic acid and acetic anhydride as the desorbent and a polymeric acidic resin as the stationary phase. It is shown that reacting the most strongly retained component, water, with acetic anhydride allows for a significant improvement in the column regeneration process, thus improving the process performance in terms of both productivity and desorbent requirements.