This work studies the process development for the purification of 1,3-propanediol by batch preparative chromatography. The strongly acidic cation exchangers in hydrogen and sodium form were used as the stationary phases. The equilibrium adsorption of 1,3-propanediol and glycerol onto two polymeric resins were investigated and the model parameters were experimentally determined to process simulation. The work has proven that 1,3-propanediol can be isolated from the fermentation broth with high efficiency. The obtained results show that the Equilibrium-Dispersive model can be applied to simulation experiments and scale-up designs of chromatographic processes.