In this study, the fixed - bed adsorption of carbon dioxide and a carbon dioxide - nitrogen mixture on zeolite 13X was investigated. The adsorption equilibrium and breakthrough curves were determined at different temperatures - 301 - 306 K, 323 K, 373 K and 423 K. A model based on the LDF approximation for the mass transfer, considering the energy and momentum balances, was used to describe the adsorption kinetics of carbon dioxide and a carbon dioxide - nitrogen mixture. The model acceptably reproduced all of the breakthrough curves and can be considered as adequate for designing a PSA cycle to separate carbon dioxidenitrogen mixtures.

The two enantiomers that constitute a racemate have different activities when employed as pharmaceuticals. Due to this fact, fully recognized today, the pharmaceutical industry has been forced to market pure enantiomers instead of the racemic mixture whenever a chiral compound is involved. The simulated moving bed (SMB) is a chromatographic process that, unlike traditional HPLC systems, operates continuously without losing the enantiomeric purity of the outlet streams. The present work describes the enantioseparation of the anesthetic ketamine in a semipreparative-scale SMB unit. The chiral stationary phase employed was the microcrystalline cellulose triacetate. The outlet streams were analyzed by an on-line system, composed by an UV/VIS meter and a polarimeter, and also by HPLC. The analysis indicated purity values up to 100% for the stream of interest and up to 97.7% for the other stream.