Development of Small Distillation Column for Performance Evaluation of Distillation Column

A lab scale distillation experiment is conducted with small size packing used in lab scale multi-tray distillation equipment for the performance evaluation of distillation system. A sufficient surface are yielded with 6.7 mm cylindrical packings made of stainless steel, and a good liquid holdup and residence time are resulted. The comparison between the theoretical tray from the HYSYS and the experimental distillation outcome indicates that a 7 cm HETP from 27 cm packing height and a 8 cm HETP from 45 cm packing height are obtained. Comparing with the 8 cm HETP of commercial structured packing shows a similar experimental results obtained here. The 7 cm HETP is available with a complete insulation, and the importance of the insulation is proved. The results of this study indicates that a practical distillation column used in field can be tested in lab.