MODELING, SIMULATION AND ANALYSIS OF MOLECULAR DISTILLATORS - CENTRIFUGAL AND FALLING FILM

A description of the molecular distillation process is made in order t o show its principal applications for chemical processes. The transfer process from liquid stage for the falling film and centrifugal molecu lar distillators is described. The liquid film flows in the conic rota tive evaporator of the centrifugal distillator and in the cylindric ev aporator of the falling film distillator. The equations that character ize both processes are the mass, energy and momentum balances and the Langmuir rate of evaporation. The equations are solved by the method o f finite differences. The effect of several parameters on the distilla tion rate and on the separation efficiency are studied for binary syst ems. A comparative analysis between the falling film and centrifugal d istillation apparatuses is carried out.