Continuous Distillation
CHE 5037-002 Group F, Cycle I
Andrew Clark, Brett Ewell, Jared Klaber, Jadin Moorman, Anne-Marie Shimko
08/25/2023
Objective:
The goal of this experiment is to do a continuous distillation of ethanol and water using a
combination of different reflux ratios. These reflux ratios will then be used to describe the
behavior of the continuous distillation and show not only the reflux ratios effect on the number
of theoretical trays in the distillation column, but why a 100% recovery of ethanol is not
obtainable with any given reflux ratio (A quality vs quantity issue). This experiment will be
using the McCabe-Thiele method to determine the number of theoretical stages and mass
balances will have to be calculated for the stripping section, rectifying section and feed section of
this experiment to determine the stages required for a given reflux ratio.
Operation:
1. Start-up: Activate the feed pump and start circulating feed through the system.
2. Let the boiler fill up with the feed material until it’s at the overflow level and start
cooling water system.
3. Once the boiler is at the overflow level, turn off the feed pump and turn on the boiler
heater.
4. Wait ~10 minutes for the process to begin distilling and start collecting distillate before
the next step.
5. Once there is adequate distillate available, turn on all three pumps to start the continuous
distillation.
6. Once the continuous distillation begins, you can then set your feed rate, bottoms feed
rate, distillate feed rate and reflux ratio.
Results:
The results that need to be obtained for this experiment are the feed rate, bottoms feed rate,
distillate feed rate, reflux ratio and the volumetric densities of the three rates respectfully. This
will be used to calculate the mass balances for this experiment which will then allow the McCabe
Thiele plot to be created for each reflux ratio to see its effect on the theoretical number of trays
and the overall distillation effectiveness.