Ethanol Distillation McCabe-Thiele diagram and Murphee Efficiency
Question
A distillation column is separating 1000 mol/hr of 32 mol% ethanol and water. The feed enters a sub-cooled liquid that will condense 1 mole of vapor on the feed plate for every 4 moles of feed. The column has a partial condenser and uses open (direct) steam heating. We desire to distillate product Yd = 0.75 and bottoms of Xb = 0.10. CMO is valid. The steam is pure saturated water vapor.
a. Draw a diagram of the process.
b. Use the given equilibrium diagram to demonstrate a McCabe-Thiele diagram.
c. Assuming an L/D of 2.0, how many stages are needed?
d. How many stages are needed if you have a Murphee efficiency of 2/3 for all stages?
Summary
The question belongs to Chemical Engineering and it is about ethanol water distillation process where water is separated from ethanol. The above questions have been answered in detail in the solution.
Note: The solution is in handwritten format.