The Ethanol-Water Distillation Column

Welcome to Geoff Vining's ethanol-water distillation column. I have found that this project solidifies students' understanding and appreciation of industrial experimentation. Students can control six aspects of the column's operation. These aspects and their corresponding ``regions of operability'' are:

x₁	inlet feed rate	75 - 125 GPM
x₂	inlet feed temperature	70 - 300 degrees F
x₃	distillate (alcohol final product) rate	2 - 20 GPM
x₄	condensate temperature	100 - 300 GPM
x₅	reboil temperature	250 - 500 degrees F
x₆	reflux ratio	10 - 100

The program determines:

the yield, which is the concentration of alcohol in the distillate,
the profit from this specific run,
the column's pressure, and
the condenser's pressure.

Click here for more details on the column and the project.

This link gives an actual project description I have used with students.

Click here to actually run the column.

Click here for the Fortran source code for the column.

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