Optimization strategies accounting for the additive in preparative chiral liquid chromatography

This study is an in-depth investigation on how numerical optimization strategies that also account for the additive type and concentration, in preparative batch chromatography, should be performed. As a model system, the separation of Z-(R,S)-2-aminobutyric acid enantiomers on a quinidine carbamate-based chiral stationary phase in polar organic mode was used, with different additive strengths of acetic acid or hexanoic acid in methanol. The inverse method was used to determine the competitive adsorption isotherm parameters for the enantiomers and the additives. Three different optimization strategies were examined: (1) injection volume optimization, (2) optimization of injection volume and additive concentration, and (3) full optimization including injection volume, additive concentration, sample concentration and flow rate. It was concluded that (i) it is important to incorporate the additive concentration in the optimization procedure to achieve the highest production rates, (ii) the full optimization strategy had the overall best results, and (iii) the selection of additive is very important (here acetic acid additive was superior to the hexanoic acid additive). By including the additive in the adsorption model and in the numerical optimization it is not only possible to achieve higher production rates but also to properly select the additive that is most advantageous for the specific separation problem.