Vapor–liquid interaction with allowance made for mass transfer nonequimolarity

Abstract

An analysis of the literature concerning the distillation of methanol–water, ethanol–water, and water–acetic acid mixtures has revealed marked differences between the efficiency of separation of the water–alcohol solutions and that of the water–acetic acid mixture. It is demonstrated that these differences are due to the effect of the nonequimolarity of the process on the mass transfer rate under distillation conditions. Taking into account the nonequimolarity effect for all of the mixtures has made it possible to correct the distillation tray efficiencies and to establish a unified correlation between the vapor-side volumetric mass transfer coefficient and the vapor flow rate in the column.