MATE

IFST
Hungarian University of DFPE

Agriculture and Life Sciences

Institute of Food Science and Technology

Mass and Energy Transfer Processes

9. lecture
Dr. Szilvia BÁNVÖLGYI
associate professor

Banvolgyi.Szilvia@uni-mate.hu
Department of Food Process Engineering, 2021
Distillation processes
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• Definition: distillation is a process for thermal separation

of liquid mixtures.
• Driving force: difference in boiling points of the
compounds.
• Products:
• Overhead product (distillate)
• Bottom product (distillation residue)
• Two methods:
• Simple distillation
• Rectification (multistage distillation)
• Operating mode:
• continuous
• batch 2
Batch rectification
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Countercurrent multistage distillation. The generated vapor is guided

through the rectifying column in counterflow to parts of its
condensate. Heat and mass transfer is occured.
The column can be:
o Tray/Plate, what accomplishes
staged contact between the V
and L phases,
o Packed, what accomplishes
continuously contact between
the V and L phases.

The column can be made from metal or

glas (in small size). In the column there
are trays or packing elements what
ensure the intensive contact between
the vapor and liquid phase. 3
Operation of tray column
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• Assume that each plate works ideally, whatever composition

the liquid and vapor phases enter the plate, they will have an
equilibrium composition at the exit: the plate implements one
theoretical plate.
• The temperature of the steam is higher than that of the liquid,
so some of the vapor transfers its heat to the liquid, partially
condensing, while the liquid partially evaporates.
• The process lasts until the common equilibrium temperature of
the two phases is formed, to which the equilibrium
concentrations xn, yn belong.
• Moving upwards, the vapor in the more volatile component
becomes more and more rich (and the equilibrium
temperatures of the plates become lower and lower). Moving
downwards, the concentration of the less volatile component
increases. 4
Batch rectification
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The batch rectification is an unsteady separation

process. It means the mass, temperature,
concentration, and other properties vary with time.

It can be applied in the production of rare and

valuable substances,
• if the amount of material is too small to make
continuous distillation for the purpose of
separation or purification practicable.
• if the feed solution contains a lot of solid
particles. E.g. in the production of „pálinka” or
spirit/schnaps from different fruit mash.

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Flowsheet of batch rectification
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• 1 – pot
• 2 – column
• 3 – deflegmator
• 4 – reflux distributor
• 5 – cooler
• 6 – receivers

It has two operation method:

• Constant reflux ratio
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• Constant distillate
composition
Operating Line of Batch Rectification
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• In the case of continuous rectification, 3 OL were

distinguished: OLE, OLS and IL (q line)
• In batch rectification, there is only an enrichment section
because the feed takes place in the pot
• Separation can be characterized by the OLE

y
D
𝑅 𝑥𝐷
𝑦𝑛+1 = ∙𝑥 +
𝑅+1 𝑛 𝑅+1

𝑥𝐷
𝑅+1 7

𝑥𝐷 x
Number of theoretical stages (NT)
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• NT shows how many

times are the vapor
and liquid phase in y
equilibrium during
the separation.
• Determination:
McCabe – Thiele
method.
• Usually NT < 10
• Batch still (pot) itself
is counted as one
theoretical stage.
xM xD x
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 MATE
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Batch Rectification
Constant Reflux Ratio
Batch rectification R=constant
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• The liquid concentration is decreased continuously in the

function of time.
• For this reason the operating line (OLE) will be another
place at different time moment.
𝑅
• The slope of OLE does not change  OLE-s are
𝑅+1
parallel
• x decreases, R is constant  xD decreases
• The first OLE has to be found by trial and error. The NT has
to be resulted xF .
• The last OLE has to be found by trial and error. The NT has
to be resulted xB
• Between the first and last OLE-s can be plotted infinite
OLE. 10
Batch rectification R=constant
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First OLE

Last OLE

xB x2 xF xD3 xD2 xD1 x

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Batch rectification R=constant
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• Differential material balance:

L ∙ x = L − dL ∙ x − dx + 𝑥𝐷 ∙ dL
𝑥𝐹
𝐹 𝑑𝑥
𝑙𝑛 = න
𝐵 𝑥𝐷 − 𝑥
𝑥𝐵

• The mean concentration of the head product can be

calculated from the overall mass balance:
𝐹 =𝐷+𝐵 → 𝐷 =𝐹−𝐵
𝐹 ∙ 𝑥𝐹 − 𝐵 ∙ 𝑥𝐵
𝑥𝐷 =
𝐹 ∙ 𝑥𝐹 = 𝐷 ∙ 𝑥𝐷 + 𝐵 ∙ 𝑥𝐵 𝐹−𝐵

• Amount of vapor to be boiled: 12

𝐿
𝑉 = 𝐿 + 𝐷 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑅 = 𝑉 =𝐷∙ 𝑅+1 𝑘𝑚𝑜𝑙
𝐷
 MATE
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Batch rectification
Maintain Constant Distillate Composition
Batch rectification xD=constant
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• The goal is to maintain a constant composition of the head

product from a decreasing concentration liquid phase. To
achieve that R has to be continuously vary (increase).
• This requires a more complex control system, including a
composition sensor on the distillate, which may be
justified only for large batch rectification systems.
• The R is set in the function of concentrations (head
product and feed) at the beginning.
• If R is increased  NT will change, separation capacity
increases, but the efficiency decreases.

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Batch rectification xD=constant
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• x is changed  the slope of OLE has to be changed

continuously to maintain constant xD during the
separation
• x decreases  slope of OLE increases (intercept
decreases)  R increases
• The first OLE has to be found by trial and error. The NT has
to be resulted xF .
• The last OLE has to be found by trial and error. The NT has
to be resulted xB
• Between the first and last OLE-s can be plotted infinite
OLE.
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Batch rectification xD=constant
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First OLE

Last OLE

xB x2 xF xD x
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Batch rectification xD=constant
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• The reflux ratio must be increased during the separation

until the desired composition of the liquid in the pot is
reached with the theoretical number of plates available
during the operation.
• The concentration of head product is constant, the
temperature of first tray is also constant, but the
temperature of pot is increases continuously.
• Because of the reflux ratio increases, the intercept of OLE
𝑥𝐷
decreases, the OLE nears to the diagonal.
𝑅+1
• The process can be stopped when a prescribed
composition or recovery is reached.
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 MATE
Batch rectification xD=constant IFST
DFPE

• Mass balance for condenser: • In differential form:

𝑑𝐿 ∙ 𝑑𝑉
𝑉 =𝐿+𝐷 → 𝐷 =𝑉−𝐿 𝑑𝑉 = 𝑑𝐿 + 𝑑𝐷 = + 𝑑𝐷
𝑑𝑉
𝐿 𝐿
𝑅= = 𝑅
𝐷 𝑉−𝐿 𝑑𝑉 = ∙ 𝑑𝑉 + 𝑑𝐷
𝑅+1
𝑅∙𝑉−R∙𝐿 =𝐿
𝑅 1
𝑑𝑉 ∙ 1 − = 𝑑𝑉 ∙ = 𝑑𝐷
𝑅∙𝑉 =𝐿∙ 𝑅+1 𝑅+1 𝑅+1
𝑉 𝐷 𝐷
𝑅 𝐿 𝑑𝐿 𝑑𝐷
= = න 𝑑𝑉 = න = න 𝑅 + 1 ∙ 𝑑𝐷
𝑅 + 1 𝑉 𝑑𝑉 1
0 0 𝑅+1 0
𝐷 18
𝑉 = න 𝑅 + 1 ∙ 𝑑𝐷
0
Batch rectification xD=constant
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• Overall MSB and MAB: • Because of xD > xF

𝐹 =𝐷+𝐵 → 𝐵 =𝐹−𝐷
𝐹 ∙ 𝑥𝐷 − 𝑥𝐹 ∙ 𝑑𝑥
𝑑𝐷 = −
𝐹 ∙ 𝑥𝐹 = 𝐷 ∙ 𝑥𝐷 + 𝐵 ∙ 𝑥𝐵 𝑥𝐷 − 𝑥 2
𝐷 ∙ 𝑥𝐷 = 𝐹 ∙ 𝑥𝐹 − 𝐹 − 𝐷 ∙ 𝑥𝐵 𝐷

𝐷 ∙ 𝑥𝐷 − 𝑥𝐵 = 𝐹 ∙ 𝑥𝐹 − 𝑥𝐵 𝑉 = න 𝑅 + 1 ∙ 𝑑𝐷
0
• At given time: xB → x
𝑥𝐹
𝑅+1
𝐷 ∙ 𝑥𝐷 − 𝑥 = 𝐹 ∙ 𝑥𝐹 − 𝑥 𝑉 = 𝐹 ∙ 𝑥𝐷 − 𝑥𝐹 ∙ න 2
∙ 𝑑𝑥
𝑥𝐷 − 𝑥
𝑥𝑀
𝑥𝐹 − 𝑥
𝐷=𝐹∙
𝑥𝐷 − 𝑥 • Time of rectification:
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𝑉
𝐹 ∙ 𝑥𝐹 − 𝑥𝐷 ∙ 𝑑𝑥 𝜏=
𝑑𝐷 = 𝑣𝐺
𝑥𝐷 − 𝑥 2
 MATE
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Thank you for your

attention!

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