Evaluation of dual flow counter-current chromatography and intermittent counter-current extraction

The aim of this research is to compare two continuous extraction technologies, intermittent counter-current extraction (ICcE) and dual flow counter-current chromatography (DFCCC), in terms of loading and throughput using the GUESSmix, and show the advantages and disadvantages of the two methods. A model sample containing caffeine, vanillin, naringenin and carvone, with a total load of 11.2 g, was employed with a hexane–ethyl acetate–methanol–water (2:3:2:3) phase system to evaluate an ICcE method on a preparative (912 ml coil volume) DE-Midi instrument. While DFCCC was carried out on a specially designed preparative (561 ml coil volume) bobbin installed in a similar Midi instrument case. While similar throughputs of 7.8 g/h and 6.9 g/h were achieved for the ICcE and DFCCC methods respectively, ICcE was demonstrated to have a number of advantages over DFCCC.