Calculation

of a

distillation

column

(for educational purpose only, no warranty)

Here the number of plates which are necessecary for a certain separation problem can be calculated. The ideal separation factor alpha*12 is calculated from vapour pressures obtained by the Antoine equation. The activity coefficients are calculated with the van Laar equation. The ideal separation factor and the parameters of the van Laar equation are assumed to be temperature independent. The equations used can be looked up in text books on unit operations such as the book of Schlünder and Thurner or the book of McCabe, Smith and Harriott.

choose a mixture:

input of the mole fraction of the feed xfeed=
input of the mole fraction of the bottom product xbottom=
input of the mole fraction of the overhead product xtop=
reflux rate; don't start with a too low value v=
type of feed:
cool feed q>1
feed at bubble point (saturated liquid) q=1
feed partially vapour 0<q<1
feed at dew point (saturated vapor) q=0
feed superheated vapor q<0
q=
amount of feed F=

If the system has an azeotrope between the mole fraction of the top or the bottom or if the reflux rate is too low you will get an error message in the ASCII-output of the program.

You can view the results on a result page.

  

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