Extractive Distillation of an Equimolar Acetone-Methanol Mixture Using Water
Consider an extractive distillation column operating at atmospheric pressure with 55 stages, a partial reboiler, and a total condenser. It is used to separate acetone and methanol using water as an entrainer.
Pure entrainer at is fed to the column at a flow rate equal to at stage 24 (counting from the top). The lower feed is composed of an equimolar mixture of acetone and methanol. The lower feed, at , is located at stage 39 (counting from the top) and has a flow rate equal to .
This Demonstration solves the MESH equations (material, equilibria, summations, and heat) and displays the composition and temperature profiles for user-set values of the reflux ratio. The second degree of freedom is set by taking a distillate flow rate equal to .
Finally, a comparison of the present calculation with Aspen HYSYS shows excellent agreement.