Abstract
It is a well-known fact that in a multicomponent rectifying column the concentration of a component, except for the most and least volatile ones, will sometimes take the maximum at a certain plate and sometimes will not. The cause of this fact was discussed previously in a few literature references, but a quantitative explanation has not yet been given.
In this paper the conditions which provide the maximum concentration in multicomponent rectifying columns are presented for the case of total and partial reflux under the assumption of constant relative volatilities of each component. The validity of the conclusion is confirmed by numerical examples.
