Distillation Column

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Experiment: Distillation Column
Abstract
During the distillation process, condensation follows vaporization to separate a solution into its components. The process was done in a column of distillation, whereby methanol and 2-propanol were separated by running them through the column. The operation of the distillation column involved the use of three steam flow rates and three reflux ratios for each power, with an efficiency of 1.5.
The objective of the investigation was to examine how the distillation column behaves during the separation of methanol and 2-propanol. The temperatures, the liquid level in the reboiler, and the solution compositions were all checked during the operation. Since the solution at the plant had 75 mol % methanol and 25 mol% 2-propanol, the design had to produce steam of at least 85% methanol, and 98% distillate. The results revealed that when the distillation column was operated at 455 MJ/h; the reflux ratio was recorded as 2.07. Also, the flow rates at the distillate and bottom were found to be 136 kg/h of 98.03 mol% methanol and 1114 kg/h of 32.17 mol% methanol respectively. The distillate flow rate showed a slight difference attributed to the loss of heat to the environment.