Science is constantly evolving, yet many of today's best technology started as simple ideas thought up by geniuses centuries ago. That is what makes it very exciting and really fun! You may hear something like "hydrocarbon dew point software" and assume this is something new and fancy. In fact, the concept of distillation is a very old and common process used to separate the substances composing a liquid mixture. When the mixture is heated, the constituents vaporize according to their respective boiling temperatures. A receiving flask collects the distillate, produced by condensing the vapor.
At its most basic concept, it really is as simple as that! Distillation can be used to purify substances, and to obtain:
#1 Gasoline from crude oil
#2 Essential oils from flowers
#3 Alcohol from fermented fruits or grains
Without distillation, we wouldn't have gas-powered cars, perfume, or beer. Our entire lives would be different! The basis of distillation is phase equilibrium. More specifically, it is vapor–liquid phase equilibrium. Distillation is the process of separating the components or substances from a liquid mixture by using selective boiling and condensation. A deep and proper understanding of vapor–liquid equilibrium is essential for the analysis, design, and control of distillation columns.
Clearly, distillation is one of the most important operations in chemical engineering. Yet, it is also one of the most challenging operations for modeling and control. More often than not, calculating a column using a process simulation package can be a time-consuming task. To help you get the results of the simulation quickly and every time, you'll want to make sure you're using the best distillation simulation software available.
The design of a distillation column involves many parameters, including product compositions, operating pressure, product flow rates, reflux ratio, total number of trays, feed tray location, reboiler heat input, condenser heat removal, column diameter, and column height. You don't want to do this by hand! You want the industry's best software to help.
There's a bit more to it, though. Not all of these variables are independent, so a “degrees of freedom” analysis is useful in pinning down exactly how many independent variables can be specified to completely define the system. A rigorous degrees-of-freedom analysis involves counting the number of variables in the system and subtracting the number of equations that describe the system. It's actually not as difficult as it sounds, though. Typically, the situation in distillation design is that the feed conditions are given. This includes the flow rate, pressure, composition, and temperature. The desired compositions of the product streams are also typically known. This is helpful in moving forward to get your final product and answers.
This is a pretty long process, about ten steps. That is why it is so time-consuming and overwhelming if it is not done using the industry's best software. You don't want to spend more time than you have to and you don't want your results to come into question. Using the right tools for the tasks will have you energy and stress!