In conventional moment analysis, detailed information regarding the retention equilibrium and mass transfer kinetics is derived from the 1st normalized moment and standard deviation of the chromatograms respectively. The moment values are determined from their analytical expressions. In the moment analysis method of this work, the moment values are estimated accurately from the simulated chromatograms by the application of the weighed residual moment method. For parameters estimation, our moment analysis method can be implemented not only on the symmetric chromatograms with linear isotherms as in conventional moment analysis, but also to the analysis of asymmetric chromatograms with nonlinear and competitive isotherms. Also compared to the commonly used parameter estimation method (fitting with experimental concentration points), our moment analysis method approached faster to the optimized values and the final parameters were also better identified. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.