DISTILLATION

-Separation of mixtures based on the difference in volatilities by utilizing vapor and liquid phases at
essentially the same temperature and pressure for coexisting zones

-feed mixture of two or more components is separated into two or more products, including and more
often limited to, an overhead distillate and a bottoms product

- the distillate may be liquid and/or vapor and the bottoms product is always a liquid

OMB: F= D + B

Component balance: XfF = XDD + XBB

% Recovery= (XDD/XFF) x 100

Problem 1:

A liquid mixture of benzene and toluene contains 55% benzene by mass. The mixture is to be partially
evaporated to yield a vapor containing 85% Benzene and a residual liquid containing 10.6% benzene by
mass. Find the mass flow rate of the overhead product and the bottom stream.

Problem 2:

1000 kg per hour of a mixture containing equal parts by mass of methanol and water is distilled. Product
streams leave the top and the bottom of the distillation column. The flowrate of the bottom stream is
measured and found to be 673 kg/h and the overhead stream is analyzed and found to contain 96% by wt
methanol. Calculate the mass and mole fraction of methanol and the molar flow rates of methanol and
water in the bottom product stream.

Problem 3:

A liquid mixture contains 60% wt ethanol, 5% wt solute and the balance is water. A stream of this mixture
is fed to a continuous distillation column operating at steady state. Product streams emerge at the top
and the bottom of the column. The column design calls for the product streams to have equal mass flow
rates and for the top streams to contain 90% wt ethanol and no solute. (i) Calculate the mass fraction of
solute in the bottom stream. (ii) the fraction of the ethanol in the feed that leaves in the bottom product
stream.
Problem 4

A binary mixture consists of 35% benzene and 65% toluene are continuously fed to the distillation column
at a rate of 1000 kg/hr. Whereas, the distillate flow rate was 10% from the feed flow rate. The distillate
contains 85% benzene. Calculate quantity and compositions of the waste stream.

Problem 5

An equimolar liquid mixture of benzene and toluene is separated into two product streams by distillation
shown below

Calculate (i) the molar amounts of overhead and products (ii) the mole fraction of benzene in the bottom
product (iii) the percentage recovery of toluene in the bottoms product
Problem 6:

A continuous still is to be used to separate acetic acid, water, and benzene from each other. On a trial run,
the calculated data were as follows: feed (F) composed of an aqueous acetic acid (HAc) solution (80%HAc
and 20% water) and benzene (Bz) with a mass fraction of XBF; waste (W) composed of 10.9% HAc, 21.7%
water and 67.4% Bz; and HAc product (P) at 350 kg/h.

Find the expression of the HAc and Bz balance for the operation and what is the mass percentage of Bz in
the feed