In the example below, an 8 hours glass column chromatography run was separated in just 50 minutes using a 40mm ID flash cartridge. In this case there were no mixed fractions either.

 

5.0 x 10cm (90g) Glass Column	4.0 x 15cm (90g) Flash Cartridge

 

Time Savings with Flash Chromatography

 

 

Cost Savings with Flash Chromatography

It would appear that column chromatography is less expensive than flash. However, flash columns can be re-used multiple times and after taking labour costs into account, flash chromatography works out significantly cheaper to run than column chromatography.

 

Clearly labour cost is a big issue. Where flash is used by commercial organisations, the time and labour argument is compelling.