In this presentation are shown the fundamental concepts, industrial applications and recent scientific progresses of Distillation.

1. DISTILLATION COLUMN: FOUNDATIONS,
APPLICATIONS AND SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS
1
UNIT OPERATIONS LAB II
UNITOPERATION:DISTILLATION

2. DISTILLATION COLUMN
IRIS BUSTAMANTE PÁJARO*
ANGIE CASTILLO GUEVARA*
ALVARO JOSE GARCÍA PADILLA *
KARIANA ANDREA MORENO SADDER*
9th SEMESTER
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING PROGRAM
UNIVERSITY OF CARTAGENA
2
UNIT OPERATIONS LAB II
UNITOPERATION:DISTILLATION

3. 3
UNITOPERATION:DISTILLATION
OUTLINE
1. Introduction
2. Theoretical foundations
3. Applications
4. Limitations
5. Current researches
6. Objectives & Methodology
7. Results & Discussion
8. Conclusion
Acknowledgements
DISTILLATION COLUMN: FOUNDATIONS, APPLICATIONS AND
SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS
"Good, better, best. Never let it rest. 'Til your good is better and your better is best." - St. Jerome

4. 4
UNITOPERATION:DISTILLATION
INTRODUCTION
UNIT OPERATION
DISTILLATION
Method used to separate the
components of a liquid solution
based on difference of volatility.
Importance:
Most mature operation among the industrial processes.
Used extensively to separate chemical and petrochemical mixtures.
90–95% of product is separated by it.
Chemical engineer, job duties:
Design, simulate, develop & operate distillation unit, where mass and
heat transfer phenomena take place.
Uwitonze et al., 2015; Tututi-Avila et al., 2017; Zhang & Liu, 2017; Geankoplis, 1993

5. 5
UNITOPERATION:DISTILLATION
MAIN TYPES
TYPE CHARACTERISTICS REFERENCE
Simple distillation Liquid charge is boiled and vapor are
withdrawn to a condenser.
Geankoplis, 1993
Stage distillation Series of flash vaporization stages.
Vapor and liquid products for each stage
flow counter-currently to each other.
Li et al., 2017
Geankoplis, 1993
Extractive
distillation
Solvent added in mixture improve
relative volatility of light and heavy
components.
Zhao et al., 2017
Zhu et al., 2016
Reactive
distillation
Reaction and distillation take place in the
same equipment, reducing cost.
May-Vázquez et al.,
2016
Table 1. Main types of distillation extensively applied in laboratory and
industrial processes

6. 6
UNITOPERATION:DISTILLATION
THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS
DISTILLATION COLUMN
Column condenser
Reflux drum
Reflux Distillate materials
Feed
Bottoms
Reboiler
Designed based on the boiling
point properties of the
components in the mixtures.
Sections:
Enriching section
Stripping section
𝑉 𝑚+1 = 𝐿 𝑚 − 𝑊
𝑉𝑛+1 = 𝐿 𝑛 + 𝐷
D
W
𝐿 𝑛
𝑉𝑛+1
F
All column
𝐹 = 𝑊 + 𝐷

7. 7
UNITOPERATION:DISTILLATION
MC CABE-THIELE METHOD
MC CABE-THIELE
Used to determine number of
theoretical stages or trays
𝑥 𝑤 𝑥 𝐷𝑥 𝐹
𝑦
Limitations:
• Binary mixture
• Equimolar overflow through
the tower
slope =
Lm
Vm+1
slope =
Ln
Vn+1
Total reflux
Minimum reflux
𝑅 = ∞, 45° Line=operation lines
Infinite number of trays
Application Mc Cabe-Thiele method

8. 8
UNITOPERATION:DISTILLATION
APPLICATIONS
SEPARATION
PROCESSES
Essential step to recover or purify the desired
products, or to remove undesired wastes or
byproducts.
Yang et al., 2015
Separation of air into its
components
Fossil fuel industry Chemical synthesis
Distilled Beverage

9. 9
UNITOPERATION:DISTILLATION
LIMITATIONS
Bruinsma et al., 2012; Tututi-Ávila et al., 2017
DISTILLATION
DISADVANTAGE
Low thermodynamic efficiency
Energy demanding operation
Account for about 40–70% of both
capital and operating costs in a typical
chemical plant.
Source: www.encyclopedia.che.engin.umich.edu
WHAT TO DO?
Alternatives to improve performance
of distillation column
Heat is supplied in the reboiler at a high temperature level and roughly the
same amount of heat is rejected in the condenser at low temperature level

10. UNITOPERATION:DISTILLATION
CURRENT RESEARCHES
REVERSIBLE
DISTILLATION
NOT feasible: Infinite number of stages and
heat exchangers
HEAT PUMPS
Most effective way
Expansion valve Distillate
Bottoms
Reboiler
Compressor
Condenser
Feed
Vapor recompression column (VRC)
Extract the low temperatura waste
heat from column condenser, and
use as the heat source of reboiler.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
Bruinsma et al., 2012; Li et al., 2017 10

11. UNITOPERATION:DISTILLATION
CURRENT RESEARCHES
MULTICOMPONENT MIXTURES SEPARATION
DISTILLATION SEQUENCE
Simple basic
Indirect
Direct
Complex basic
Petlyuk or Divided wall
Thermally coupled
Equivalent thermodynamic
Fully thermally coupled
Khalili-Garakani et al., 2016 11

12. UNITOPERATION:DISTILLATION
CURRENT RESEARCHES
Khalili-Garakani et al., 2016
Indirect distillation sequence
A, B, C
A
B
C
Direct distillation sequence
C
A, B, C
A
B
12

13. UNITOPERATION:DISTILLATION
CURRENT RESEARCHES
Khalili-Garakani et al., 2016; Hernandez et al., 2006 13
Equivalent thermodynamic side
rectifier
Equivalent thermodynamic side
stripper
A, B, C
A
C
B
A
B
C
A, B, C

14. UNITOPERATION:DISTILLATION
CURRENT RESEARCHES
Khalili-Garakani et al., 2016; Hernandez et al., 2006
14
Thermally coupled side rectifier Thermally coupled side stripper
A, B, C
A
B
A
B
C
A, B, C
C
Energy savings of up to 30% in
contrast to conventional configuration

15. UNITOPERATION:DISTILLATION
CURRENT RESEARCHES
Uwitonze et al., 2015; Wang et al., 2016 ; Hernandez et al., 2006 15
Petlyuk column Divided wall column
A, B, C
Energy savings of up to 50% in
contrast to conventional
configuration
A
B
C
A-B
B-C
A
B
C
A, B, C

16. UNITOPERATION:DISTILLATION
CURRENT RESEARCHES
16
Khalili-Garakani et al.
Four ternary mixture, components:
lineal hydrocarbon (𝐶4 − 𝐶7)
Exergy analysis of different
configurations
Recovery of 99.5% and 1% for light
and heavy components
Distribution of the best sequences among different configurations. Source: Khalili-Garakani
et al., 2016

17. UNITOPERATION:DISTILLATION
CURRENT RESEARCHES
17
Uwitonze et al.
Three multicomponent mixture
Design & control fully thermally
coupled columns
Simulation on Aspen HYSIS
Dynamic response for perturbation into feed flow,-10% of feed flow rate, on a) propane and
b) n-butane. Source: Uwitonze et al., 2015
Study of dynamic response for perturbation into feed flow
a) b)

18. UNITOPERATION:DISTILLATION
CURRENT RESEARCHES
18
Hernández et al.
Design of six alternate
thermodynamically equivalent distillation
sequences to the Petlyuk column
Case of study:
Ternary mixture of n-pentane (A), n-hexane (B) and n-heptane (C) with
compositions of 40, 20 and 40% for A, B and C respectively.
Second law efficiencies of
configurations
Similar to Petlyuk column
Advantages:
More easily implemented in
practice
Achieve significant energy
savings

19. UNITOPERATION:DISTILLATION
OBJECTIVES & METHODOLOGY
19
DISTILLATION COLUMN CALCULATIONS
Liquid-vapor equilibrium
Application Mc Cabe-Thiele method
Theoretical stages
Total efficiency
Determination of mole fraction of
distillate and bottom

20. UNITOPERATION:DISTILLATION
RESULTS & DISCUSSION
20
Calibration curve
%v/v = -1999.4ρ2 + 3137.4ρ - 1142.5
R² = 0.9984
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
0.86 0.88 0.9 0.92 0.94 0.96 0.98 1 1.02
Concentración(%v/v)
Densidad (g/mL)
Densidad versus concentración (% v/v)
Calibration curve of binary mixture (etanol-water)

21. UNITOPERATION:DISTILLATION
RESULTS & DISCUSSION
21
𝑦 𝐴 =
𝛼 𝑥 𝐴
1 + ( 𝛼 − 1 )𝑥 𝐴
Liquid-vapor equilibrium
Volatility 𝛼 =
𝑃𝐴
𝑠𝑎𝑡
𝑃𝐵
𝑠𝑎𝑡 ln 𝑃𝑖
𝑠𝑎𝑡
𝑘 𝑃𝑎 = 𝐴 −
𝐵
𝑡 ° 𝐶 + 𝐶
Compuesto A B C
Agua 16.3872 3885.7 230.170
Etanol 16.8958 3795.17 230.918
Table 2. Antoine constants for each component of mixture
𝑥 𝐶2 𝐻6 𝑂 =
𝑁𝐶2 𝐻6 𝑂
𝑁𝐶2 𝐻6 𝑂 + 𝑁 𝐻2 𝑂
Molar fraction
Van Ness, 2007
𝑁𝐶2 𝐻6 𝑂 = % v v ∙ 𝑉solución ∙ 𝜌molar,C2H6O

22. UNITOPERATION:DISTILLATION
RESULTS & DISCUSSION
22
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Fracciónmolardeetanol,y
Fracción molar de etanol, x
Fracción molar del etanol en fase líquida versus en fase
vapor
Línea de operación
Curva de equilibrio
𝐸 𝑜 = 40%
xF
xD
𝐸 𝑜 =
No. de platos ideales
No. de platos reales

23. UNITOPERATION:DISTILLATION
CONCLUSION
23
Distillation column. Source: www. spanish.alibaba.com
Distillation, one of the major unit
operations used in chemical and
petrochemical process.
The performances of distillation
columns highly depends on equilibria
liquid-vapor.
McCabe-Thiele method provides
theoretical stages simply but
assumptions deviate the results from
the real behavior.

24. THANKS !
24