SEPARATION PROCESS

July 27,
MEMBERS
2015

JARAMILLO ZIGA MARIO ALBERTO

RAMREZ LPEZ NALLELY JACQUELINE

DISTILLATION

Introduction
Distillation is a process of separating the component substances from a liquid
mixture by selective evaporation and condensation. Distillation may result in
essentially complete separation (nearly pure components), or it may be a
partial separation that increases the concentration of selected components of
the mixture. In either case the process exploits differences in the volatility of
mixture's components. In industrial chemistry, distillation is a unit operation of
practically universal importance, but it is a physical separation process and not
a chemical reaction.
Commercially, distillation has many applications. For example:

In the fossil fuel industry distillation is a major class of operation in

obtaining materials from crude oil for fuels and for chemical feedstocks.
Distillation permits separation of air into its components notably
oxygen, nitrogen, and argon for industrial use.
In the field of industrial chemistry, large ranges of crude liquid products
of chemical synthesis are distilled to separate them, either from other
products, or from impurities, or from unreacted starting materials.
Distillation of fermented products produces distilled beverages with a
high alcohol content, or separates out other fermentation products of
commercial value.

An installation for distillation, especially of alcohol, is a distillery. The distillation

equipment is a still.

Flash distillation
Flash distillation (sometimes called "equilibrium distillation") is a single stage
separation technique. A liquid mixture feed is pumped through a heater to raise
the temperature and enthalpy of the mixture. It then flows through a valve and
the pressure is reduced, causing the liquid to partially vaporize. Once the
mixture enters a big enough volume (the "flash drum"), the liquid and vapor
separate. Because the vapor and liquid are in such close contact up until the
"flash" occurs, the product liquid and vapor phases approach equilibrium.
Simple flash separations are very common in industry, particularly petroleum
refining. Even when some other method of separation is to be used, it is not
uncommon to use a "pre-flash" to reduce the load on the separation itself.

This link directs to a scientific article about flash distillation:

http://www.scielo.org.co/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S012056092008000100006

Fractional distillation
For many cases, the boiling points of the components in the mixture will be
sufficiently close that Raoult's law must be taken into consideration. Therefore,
fractional distillation must be used in order to separate the components by
repeated vaporization-condensation cycles within a packed fractionating
column. This separation, by successive distillations, is also referred to as
rectification.
As the solution to be purified is heated, its vapors rise to the fractionating
column. As it rises, it cools, condensing on the condenser walls and the
surfaces of the packing material. Here, the condensate continues to be heated
by the rising hot vapors; it vaporizes once more. However, the composition of
the fresh vapors are determined once again by Raoult's law. Each vaporizationcondensation cycle (called a theoretical plate) will yield a purer solution of the
more volatile component. In reality, each cycle at a given temperature does not
occur at exactly the same position in the fractionating column; theoretical plate
is thus a concept rather than an accurate description.
Fractional distillation is the most common form of separation technology used
in petroleum refineries, petrochemical and chemical plants, natural gas
processing and cryogenic air separation plants. In most cases, the distillation is
operated at a continuous steady state. New feed is always being added to the
distillation column and products are always being removed. Unless the process
is disturbed due to changes in feed, heat, ambient temperature, or condensing,
the amount of feed being added and the amount of product being removed are
normally equal. This is known as continuous, steady-state fractional distillation.

Industrial distillation is typically performed in large, vertical cylindrical columns

known as "distillation or fractionation towers" or "distillation columns" with
diameters ranging from about 65 centimeters to 6 meters and heights ranging
from about 6 meters to 60 meters or more. The distillation towers have liquid
outlets at intervals up the column which allow for the withdrawal of different
fractions or products having different boiling points or boiling ranges. By
increasing the temperature of the product inside the columns, the different
hydrocarbons are separated. The "lightest" products (those with the lowest
boiling point) exit from the top of the columns and the "heaviest" products
(those with the highest boiling point) exit from the bottom of the column.

Extractive distillation
Extractive
distillation
is
defined as distillation in the
presence of a miscible, high
boiling,
relatively
nonvolatile component, and
the solvent, which forms no
azeotrope with the other
components in the mixture. The method is used for mixtures having a low
value of relative volatility, nearing unity. Such mixtures cannot be separated by
simple distillation, because the volatility of the two components in the mixture
is nearly the same, causing them to evaporate at nearly the same temperature
at a similar rate, making normal distillation impractical.

The method of extractive distillation uses a

separation solvent, which is generally nonvolatile, has a high boiling point and is miscible
with the mixture, but doesn't form an azeotropic
mixture. The solvent interacts differently with
the components of the mixture thereby causing
their relative volatilities to change. This enables
the new three-part mixture to be separated by
normal distillation. The original component with
the greatest volatility separates out as the top
product. The bottom product consists of a
mixture of the solvent and the other
component, which can again be separated easily because the solvent does not
form an azeotrope with it. The bottom product can be separated by any of the
methods available.
This link directs to a scientific article about extractive distillation:
http://www.scielo.org.co/pdf/dyna/v74n151/a06v74n151.pdf

Bibliography

Warren L. McCabe, Julian C. Smith, Peter Harriott, Unit Operations of

Chemical Engineering, McGraw Hills.
http://www.scielo.org.co, July 25, 2015
http://facstaff.cbu.edu/rprice/lectures/flash.html, July 25, 2015

"Distil extract" by Joanna Komider - Own work. Licensed under Public

Domain via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Distil_extract.svg#/media/File:Di
stil_extract.svg
http://operaciones-unitarias-1.wikispaces.com/Tipos+de+Destilacion
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractionation
http://www.gas.pemex.com/NR/rdonlyres/05E98E6D-E390-4A3D-AAC75E170558FA20/0/PROCESOS..