Dimensioning a Distillation Column for Separation of Water and Ethanol
Application ID: 56071
This example shows how to make a simple model for a binary distillation process. A thermodynamics property package, available in the Chemical Reaction Engineering Module, is created to study the separation of a nonideal mixture of ethanol and water. The required equilibrium relationship is generated using the Equilibrium Calculation functionality available when using the thermodynamics features. The model is used to find the optimal design of the column, in terms of the length of the stripping and rectifying sections, to meet a set of specified distillate and bottoms compositions.
This model example illustrates applications of this type that would nominally be built using the following products:
however, additional products may be required to completely define and model it. Furthermore, this example may also be defined and modeled using components from the following product combinations:
- COMSOL Multiphysics® and
- Chemical Reaction Engineering Module and
- either the Battery Design Module, CFD Module, Chemical Reaction Engineering Module, or Fuel Cell & Electrolyzer Module and
- either the Battery Design Module, Chemical Reaction Engineering Module, Fuel Cell & Electrolyzer Module, or Liquid & Gas Properties Module
The combination of COMSOL® products required to model your application depends on several factors and may include boundary conditions, material properties, physics interfaces, and part libraries. Particular functionality may be common to several products. To determine the right combination of products for your modeling needs, review the Tabella delle Funzionalità and make use of a free evaluation license. The COMSOL Sales and Support teams are available for answering any questions you may have regarding this.