Distillation in a Rotating Packed Bed

Abstract

This work presents a novel rotating packed bed owing to its applicability in distillation. Distillation experiments were conducted using the methanol-ethanol system at atmospheric pressure and total reflux conditions with two packings. Rotor speeds ranged from 600 to 1600 rpm, which provided 42–298 equivalent gravitational force. Experimental results indicated that 1–3 theoretical plates were achieved with a packing thickness of 8.6 cm. Consequently, the height equivalent of a theoretical plate (HETP) of about 3–9 cm can be obtained in a rotating packed bed, i.e., much lower than that in a conventional packed bed. An empirical correlation was also proposed, implying that the HETP value varied with centrifugal force to the 0.23–0.26 power.