1. Experiment 300: Distillation
Sub-Team # 4
Team Leader: Adirene Castro
Safety Officer: Annette deKloet
Operator: Carlos Cardoso (Procedure)
Operator: Robert St. John (Chemcad)

2. Objectives GC Calibration Pump Calibrations Reach Steady-State
Comparison (Chemcad and McCabe Thiele)

3. Overview Background Safety Plan of Investigation Data and Results
Discussion
Recommendation
Answer questions

4. Background
Process Flow Diagram

5. Background (cont’d)
Distillation Experiment
Simple distillation.
Ethanol
n-Propanol
Requirements
1. Second phase be formed
2. Different volatilities
3. Ability to separate phases

6. Background (cont’d) Material Balance at Steady-State
Equilibrium Line Equation
Number of Theoretical Stages

7. Safety Hard Hats, Gloves and eye protection Equipment valves
Tank Levels
Heating elements
Ethanol and n-propanol

8. Plan of Investigation Pump Calibrations GC Calibration
Achieving Steady-State

9. Gas Chromatograph Calibration

10. Pump Calibrations

11. Reflux Ratio

12. Steady-State Approach

13. Steady-State Approach

14. At Steady-State xD xB 4:37 pm Day 3 0.506 1.02 2.65 0.732 0.417
Time
Reflux Flow Rate (mol/min)
Distillate Flow Rate (mol/min)
Bottoms Flow Rate (mol/min) xD xB
4:37 pm
Day 3
0.506
1.02
2.65
0.732
0.417
Material Balance
3.5* * – 2.65*0.417 = mol/min

15. Chemcad Distillate Flow Rate (mol/min) Bottom Flow Rate (mol/min)
Distillate Composition (xE)
Bottoms Composition (xE)
0.95
2.55
0.73
0.44

16. McCabe-Thiele

17. Discussion Nmin = 4 Nt = 3 Efficiency = 33.3 %
xD,Chem= 0.73 whereas xD,Ex= 0.732
%Error = 0.27%
xB,Chem= 0.44 whereas xB,Ex= 0.417
%Error = 5.2%

18. Conclusions Feed and Reflux Ratio Effectively Maintained
Composition Fairly Constant. Did not vary more than 8%
Temperature Fairly Constant
Steady-State

19. Recommendations Do not trust rotameters
Get a new air cooling heat exchanger
Improve Data Collection Sheet, Procedure, Flow Diagram

20. References
Henley, Ernest J., and J. D. Seader. Separation Process Principles. New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1998.
Unit Operations Super Team, Fall 2002 Distillation Experiment. FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, 2002.

21. Ackowledgements Dr Loren B. Schreiber Rama Sista Mark Lescher
The Audience
Everyone Who Believed in Us

22. Questions?