Why Kromasil

Flexible production without compromising quality or efficiency

The beauty of Kromasil is that you always get the same high performance regardless of column size. You will always experience the same high efficiency. The secret lies in the fact that we produce a large silica batch and then fractionate it, to offer the entire range of available particle sizes, in any amount. Whether you choose to purchase a small column, or hundreds of kg for large-scale production, the silica will come from the same batch. This means that properties such as particle size distribution, selectivity and loadability are identical, making scale-up an easy task.

Reproducibility between batches is equally important in production, where drift in the properties of the silica could mean the loss of millions of dollars. Kromasil has been ISO9001 certified since the early nineties, and we are continuously working on minimizing variation.

How Kromasil became technology leader

In 1988, a group of scientists at Eka Chemicals in Sweden introduced a silica-based packing material that greatly improved the efficiency of liquid chromatography. What made the new packing material so unique was the combination of high pore volume and surface area, together with very high mechanical stability.

This combination of properties is still unique to Kromasil and is unmatched by other brands on the market. The benefit from this feature means that you can inject more into each column and at the same time have a silica that can withstand the high mechanical pressure of a dynamic axial compression column, thus increasing productivity.

Perfectly spherical particles – the key to success

Using a new multi-step manufacturing process, Kromasil found a way to produce completely spherical porous particles. The pore volume is optimized to provide the largest surface area without compromising mechanical strength. This unique combination is achieved by special treatment of the material in several production steps.

The particles perfect shape contributes to give the highest possible mechanical stability. The excellent surface properties also make it easier to run difficult substances.

Scale up from analytical applications to full scale production

The analytical separation is often the starting point when scaling-up to semi-prep, prep or large industrial scale chromatography. Due to the properties of Kromasil, scaling up is normally seamless as the same silica with different particle sizes suited to different sized columns (from small analytical and semi-prep columns, all the way up to the largest columns used in full-scale production) is used.

All Kromasil columns independent of diameter are delivered with the same high-efficiency guarantee. Even the largest columns can be packed providing the same performance without any compromises.

Consultation from the experience of many markets over a long period

The Kromasil team has accumulated a wealth of know-how over the years and is always on hand to help you with questions or problems that arise. With a crew with broad experience of separating complex substances around the world, our chemists and chemical engineers can usually pinpoint any problems that arise simply through a dialogue with the customer.

The team can advise on how to pack columns, select optimal running conditions or optimize large-scale purifications.

From silica sand to a superior product

Kromasil’s manufacturing starts with the silica sand and runs all the way through to the finished bonded silica-based packing material. Less than a handful of suppliers worldwide are back-integrated with multi-ton per year production like Kromasil.

Kromasil controls the whole process and can therefore guarantee the quality of the final product. This is one of the reasons behind the superior properties and reproducibility. Kromasil can also offer high delivery precision, very large batch sizes (over 300 kg per batch), multi-ton per year production and over 60 years of experience in silica technology.