Anomaly detection and diagnosis in chromatography applications

A chromatography system for performing a chromatography analysis of a sample comprising a known quantity of a reference standard, the chromatography system comprising:

• a sample handling unit configured to process the sample;
• a chromatographic separation unit configured to receive the sample from the sample handling unit and to perform a chromatographic separation of the sample;
• a detection unit configured to detect the chromatographically separated sample and generate therefrom a detection signal;
• a control and processing unit configured to:
• receive the detection signal from the detection unit;
• obtain a chromatogram of the sample from the detection signal;
• determine peak information corresponding to the reference standard in the chromatogram of the sample;
• determine whether the peak information conforms with an expected overall standard response of the chromatography system associated with the reference standard;
• if it is determined that the peak information conforms with the expected overall standard response, determine that there is no anomaly in the operation of the chromatography system;
• and
• if it is determined that the peak information does not conform with the expected overall standard response, determine that there is an anomaly in the operation of the chromatography system and diagnose a cause of the anomaly as relating to at least one of the operation of the sample handling unit, the operation of the chromatographic separation unit, and the operation of the detection unit.

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored thereon computer readable instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method for anomaly detection and diagnosis in a chromatography system configured for obtaining a chromatogram of a sample comprising a known quantity of a reference standard, the chromatography system comprising a sample handling unit, a chromatographic separation unit, and a detection unit, the method comprising:

• providing the chromatogram of the sample;
• determining peak information corresponding to the reference standard in the chromatogram of the sample;
• determining whether the peak information conforms with an expected overall standard response of the chromatography system associated with the reference standard;
• if it is determined that the peak information conforms with the expected overall standard response, determining that there is no anomaly in the operation of the chromatography system;
• and
• if it is determined that the peak information does not conform with the expected overall standard response, determining that there is an anomaly in the operation of the chromatography system and diagnosing a cause of the anomaly as relating to at least one of the operation of the sample handling unit, the operation of the chromatographic separation unit, and the operation of the detection unit.