3.0 INTRODUCTION AND THEORY`

Distillation is a process of separating the liquid into a different product by difference of

purity nor temperature through conversion of a liquid into vapor that is subsequently
condensed back into liquid. Distillation is widely used for separating mixtures or product in
industries. Distillation is used to separate liquids from non volatile solids, as in the
separation of alcoholic liquors from fermented materials, or in the separation of two or
more liquids having different boiling points, as in the separation of gasoline, kerosene, and
lubricating oil from crude oil.
Other industrial applications include the processing of such chemical products as
formaldehyde and phenol and the desalination of seawater. The distillation process appears
to have been utilized by the earliest experimentalists. Aristotle(384 – 322bc)
mentionedthat pure water is made by the evaporation of seawater. Pliny the Elder (ad 23 – 
79) described a primitive method of condensation in which the oil obtained by heating
rosin is collected on wool placed in the upper part of an apparatus known as a still.
The main purpose of distillation is to separate a mixture by taking advantage of
different substances readiness to become a vapor. If the difference in boiling points
between two substances is great, complete separation may be easily accomplished by a
single-stage distillation. If the boiling points differ only slightly, many re distillations may be
required. If a water and alcohol distillate is returned from the condenser and made to drip
down through along column onto a series of plates, and if the vapor, as it rises to the
condenser, is made to bubble through this liquid at each plate, the vapor and liquid will
interact so that some of the water in the vapor condenses and some of the alcohol in the
liquid vaporizes.
Distillation is that method of heating a liquid, or a liquid-vapor mixture to derive off a
vapor and so collection and condensing this vapor. This case, the product of a distillation
process is limited to an overhead distillate and a bottom, whose compositions differ from
that of the feed. The most common method for chemical separation is distillation which one
of the oldest (Zurich, 2014).
Distillation columns are designed to achieve this separation of components of
different properties efficiently. Even though distillation is one of the most common
separation techniques, it still consumes large amount of energy (during cooling and heating
process). It also contributes to more than 50% plant of operating costs. To separate the
components of mixtures, a group of operations is done based on the transfer of the material
from the homogeneous phase to another. These methods utilize differences in vapor
pressure or solubility, not like purely mechanical separation which involves density or
particle size (Sencan, 2).
Distillation had two principal methods. The first method is the production of vapor by
boiling the liquid mixture to be separated. So, the boiled liquid mixture went through
condensing the vapors without allowed any liquid to return to the still in connect with the
vapors. Secondly, the back of condensate part to the still under such conditions that this
returning liquid is brought into intimate connect with the vapors on their way to the
condenser. These methods may be conducted as a continuous process or as a batch process.
 

Figure 2 : Bubble Cap Distillation Column

But each distillation column will used different type

of packing.Examples of commonpacking that were used in industries are packed columnand 
bubble cap.There were other type of pack or tray such as propak,heli- pak,ceramicsaddles,w
ire mesh and specialized structured packing.Bubble-cap tray is device or packing that was
mounted in a rectifying column that concentrates the alcohol. Vapor from the still pot rises
into the column and enters a pipe on the bottom of the tray. The cap forces the vapor into
the liquid sitting on top of the tray. Some of the vapor condenses overflows the weir on the
tray and falls down the column. Some of the alcohol in the liquid vaporizes creating a higher
concentration of alcohol and rises further in the column where the process is repeated at
the net bubble cap tray. The cap shave slots to break up and reduce bubble size.