Optimization by the simplex method of the separation of phenolic acids by high-performance liquid chromatography in wastewater olive and sugar beet vinasse

Optimization of a high-performance liquid chromatography separation has been developed for nine polyphenols by application of the simplex method. The nine polyphenols selected were mainly phenolic acids that can be present in wastewater and they can be removed by adsorption on activated carbon and resins. After the organic solvent (MeOH) had been chosen, a linear gradient in three stages and the furnace temperature were retained as parameters of optimization. The optimal conditions were determined by the super modified simplex and, in order to measure them a Chromatographic Response Function (CRF) was chosen. With the optimal conditions, the time of analysis was decreased from 69 to 40 min. The validation of the method was made on wastewater olive oil (WWOO) and sugar beet vinasse.