ANALYSIS OF PACKED DISTILLATION-COLUMNS WITH A RATE-BASED MODEL

Multicomponent packed column distillation is simulated using a rate-ba sed model and the simulation results are compared with the experimenta l results obtained from a 0.2 m diameter pilot-scale packed column. Th e simulation algorithm used is previously proposed by the authors, whi ch based on an equation-tearing method for (6c+7) equations of one pac king segment and the whole column is solved by an iterative segmentwis e calculation with the overall normalized theta method for acceleratio n. The performance of two packings is examined by simulating the pilot -scale column experiments using the published correlations for estimat ing liquid and vapor phase mass transfer coefficients and an effective interfacial area.