Distillation of an Ethanol-Water Mixture

step magnitude in percent

16

composition

distillate

bottom

Consider a distillation column with 10 stages, a partial reboiler, and a total condenser. The column is used to separate a nonideal equimolar mixture of ethanol and water. Deviation from ideal behavior is taken into account using the Wilson model. The feed, a biphasic stream with a quality equal to

0.5

, enters at stage 8 with a rate equal to

10kmoles/hr

. The reboil ratio is constant and equal to 15. Suppose that the column is subject to a step in the reflux ratio as follows:

R(0<t<100)=10

and

R(t>100)=10(1+δ/100)

, where

δ

is the percent increase or decrease in the reflux ratio,

R

. This Demonstration performs a rigorous dynamic simulation (including both material and energy balance equations) of this column and plots the behavior of both the distillate and bottom compositions versus time. Molar hold-ups of the reboiler, condenser, and plates are taken equal to

10kmoles

,

5kmoles

, and

1kmole

, respectively.