PROCESS FOR CONTINUOUS SEPARATION BY GAS CHROMATOGRAPHY ON FIXED GRANULAR BEDS

At least four columns filled with granular material are arranged so as to form a circulation loop, each column being intended to perform in cyclic operation successive functions of stripping, enriching, collecting the tail gas which is enriched in the least strongly adsorbed component of a gas mixture and feeding of the tail gas which is enriched in the most strongly adsorbed component. The mixture to be separated is introduced at a point of the pipe which connects the column employed at a given moment as stripping column to the column which serves at the same moment as enriching column. A fraction of the gas which is enriched in the least strongly adsorbed component is recovered at the outlet of the enriching column whilst the other fraction is fed into the following column. The gases which are adsorbed on the granular material are desorbed from the column containing the tail gas. A fraction of the gas which is enriched in the most strongly adsorbed component is withdrawn at the outlet of the column containing the tail gas whilst the other fraction is fed into the column which performs the function of stripping column.