Batch Rectification of an Ideal Benzene/Toluene Binary Mixture

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Consider an ideal binary mixture composed of benzene and toluene. This Demonstration performs the dynamic simulation of a batch rectification of such a mixture. Temperature is plotted versus time for selected values of the initial composition, reflux ratio, and number of theoretical stages.

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The still is charged with 1000 kmol of the initial mixture. The vapor rate is assumed constant and equal to 10 kmol/hr. The molar hold-up of all stages and the condenser are 5 and 20 kmol, respectively.

It is found that (1) the products that exit the column are benzene first and toluene next; and (2) if the initial composition is very rich in either benzene or toluene then the constant temperature segment at 80.1°C or 110.6°C, respectively, is quite large.

In addition, the separation is improved if you choose large reflux ratios or a large number of theoretical stages. Otherwise you get sloppy separation and neither pure benzene nor pure toluene.

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Contributed by: Housam Binous (March 2011)
Open content licensed under CC BY-NC-SA


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Details

The reflux ratio is given by:

,

where is the flow rate of the liquid refluxing to the column.

When the flow rate of the distillate, , is close to zero, the reflux ratio is very high; a situation commonly called near total reflux operation.



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