ABSTRACT
A severe limitation of conventional reaction chromatography for practical chemical processes is the low throughput that inevitably results from periodic injection of reactants. The productivity of either preparative chromatography or of reaction chromatography may be improved by making it a continuous flow process. In 1949, in remarks summarizing a Faraday Society Discussion on chromatography, A. J. P. Martin suggested that continuous separations might be done in a rotating cylindrical annulus. The performance of a chromatographic reactor should be based on the dual criteria of conversion and degree of separation. The analysis of Takeuchi and Uraguchi, based on the dimensionless first absolute moment, revealed conditions under which binary separations could be accomplished, with one component moving upward and another downward. The feed should be located well the top since at high column loadings the adsorbent will saturate and the adsorbate will be carried upward as well as downward.
