Chapter 8

Distillation Process
SHAHRUL ISMAIL, Assoc. Professor Ts Dr
Bioprocess & Energy Nexus Group (BioNexG)
Faculty of Ocean Engineering Tech & Informatics, UMT.
Basic knowledge
Eg: Distillation process to separate ethanol (mixture of alcohol ) from water

Step 2 - the ethanol evaporates first, cools, then condenses

Step 1 - water and ethanol solution are heated Step 3 - the water left evaporates, cools, then condenses

• Distillation is a process that can be used to separate a pure liquid from a mixture of liquids. It works when the
liquids have different boiling points.
• The mixture is heated in a flask. Ethanol has a lower boiling point than water so it evaporates first. The ethanol
vapor is then cooled and condensed inside the condenser to form a pure liquid.
• The thermometer shows the boiling point of the pure ethanol liquid. When all the ethanol has evaporated from
the solution, the temperature rises and the water evaporates.
• This is the sequence of events in distillation:
heating → evaporating → cooling → condensing
Introduction
Distillation is a unit operation in which the components of a liquid
solution are separated by vaporization and condensation. Distillation
can be used to control the build-up of salts in critical reuse application.

Because distillation is expensive, its application is generally limited to

application such as;
a) A high degree of treatment is required
b) Contaminants cannot be removed by other methods
c) Inexpensive heat is available
Distillation column in
wastewater treatment
plant
Distillation Process
1) Boiling with submerged-tube heating surface
2) Boiling with long-tube vertical evaporator
3) Flash evaporation
4) Forced circulation with vapor compression
5) Solar evaporation
6) Rotating-surface evaporation
7) Wiped-surface evaporation
8) Vapor reheating process
9) Direct heat transfer using an immiscible liquid
10) Condensing-vapor-heat transfer by vapor
Distillation Process
Of these types of distillation processes,
a) Multistage flash evaporation
b) Multiple effect evaporation
c) Vapor-compression distillation

appear most feasible for the reclamation of municipal wastewater

Operating Problems
The most common problems encountered including scaling and corrosion.
Due to temperature increase, inorganic salts come out of solution and
precipitate on the inside walls of pipes and equipments

How to control??

1) The control of scaling due to calcium carbonate, calcium sulfate and

magnesium hydroxide is one of the most important design and
operational consideration in distillation desalination process
2) Controlling the pH minimizes carbonate and hydroxide scales.
3) Cupronickel alloys are used most commonly in seawater desalination.
Other metals include aluminum, titanium and monel.
Study more detail?

• Grazia Leonzio (2017). Optimization of column distillation in a

wastewater treatment plant. Journal of Environmental Chemical
Engineering, Volume 5, Issue 6, December 2017, Pages 5732-5745
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S221334371730552
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Thank You..