Distillation of binary mixtures with capillary porous plates

Journal Article · Wed Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 1998 · Separation Science and Technology

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1080/01496399808545064· OSTI ID:653401

Abu Al-Rub, F A ^[1]; Akili, J; Datta, R ^[2]

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1. Jordan Univ. of Science and Technology, Irbid (Jordan). Dept. of Chemical Engineering
2. Univ. of Iowa, Iowa City, IA (United States). Dept. of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering

Distillation of liquid mixtures using capillary porous plates is a new process which depends upon the use of the intermolecular interactions between solids and liquids to alter the normal vapor-liquid equilibrium of a given mixture. Distillation of different binary mixtures, namely ethanol-water, ethanol-benzene, and acetone-ethanol systems, of different compositions was experimentally studied in a continuous distillation column equipped with four, five, or six porous sintered stainless steel fractionating plates of 13.5 {micro}m pore diameter as well as six normal sieve plates. The results showed that the main factors affecting the separation efficiency in a given porous plate are the polarization of the pure liquids and the polarization difference between the mixture components. For the ethanol-water system, the results showed that while no separation was achieved in a distillation column with conventional stages, the zeotropic point of this system was broken in the distillation column with porous plates. A distillate of about 94 mol% ethanol was obtained for a feed of the zeotropic composition, i.e., 89.7 mol% ethanol. For the ethanol-benzene system, the azeotropic point was shifted from 40 mol% ethanol to about 30 mol% ethanol. For the acetone-ethanol system, there was no significant difference between the results obtained with normal stages and those with the porous plates. These results are in agreement with the developed theory.

• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• OSTI ID: 653401
• Journal Information: Separation Science and Technology, Journal Name: Separation Science and Technology Journal Issue: 10 Vol. 33; ISSN 0149-6395; ISSN SSTEDS
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

09 BIOMASS FUELS
10 SYNTHETIC FUELS
ACETONE
BENZENE
BINARY MIXTURES
DESIGN
DISTILLATION EQUIPMENT
ETHANOL
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
PERFORMANCE
PLATES
WATER