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X-ray computed tomography of packed bed chromatography columns for three dimensional imaging and analysis

Johnson, TF; Levison, PR; Shearing, PR; Bracewell, DG; (2017) X-ray computed tomography of packed bed chromatography columns for three dimensional imaging and analysis. Journal of Chromatography A , 1487 pp. 108-115. 10.1016/j.chroma.2017.01.013. Green open access

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Abstract

Physical characteristics critical to chromatography including geometric porosity and tortuosity within the packed column were analysed based upon three dimensional reconstructions of bed structure in-situ. Image acquisition was performed using two X-ray computed tomography systems, with optimisation of column imaging performed for each sample in order to produce three dimensional representations of packed beds at 3μm resolution. Two bead materials, cellulose and ceramic, were studied using the same optimisation strategy but resulted in differing parameters required for X-ray computed tomography image generation. After image reconstruction and processing into a digital three dimensional format, physical characteristics of each packed bed were analysed, including geometric porosity, tortuosity, surface area to volume ratio as well as inter-bead void diameters. Average porosities of 34.0% and 36.1% were found for ceramic and cellulose samples and average tortuosity readings at 1.40 and 1.79 respectively, with greater porosity and reduced tortuosity overall values at the centre compared to the column edges found in each case. X-ray computed tomography is demonstrated to be a viable method for three dimensional imaging of packed bed chromatography systems, enabling geometry based analysis of column axial and radial heterogeneity that is not feasible using traditional techniques for packing quality which provide an ensemble measure.

Type: Article
Title: X-ray computed tomography of packed bed chromatography columns for three dimensional imaging and analysis
Location: Netherlands
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1016/j.chroma.2017.01.013
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chroma.2017.01.013
Language: English
Additional information: Crown Copyright © 2017 Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the Creative Commons CC BY license (CC BY 4.0) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Keywords: Geometry, Packed bed chromatography, Porosity, Tortuosity, X-ray computed tomography
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Biochemical Engineering
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Chemical Engineering
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1538968
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