Can a stripping tower with side lines be used for extractive distillation?
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Aspen was used to separate the water-ethanol-tert-butanol azeotrope mixture, with the tert-butanol and water azeotrope being obtained as the side product. I tried to connect a stripping column to the side stream gas, feeding the extractant at the top of the column; however, the separation efficiency was much lower than that of a conventional distillation column – it could only reach around 95%. Why is this?
Using the side line for extraction means only a portion of the separation capacity of the tower plates is utilized, so the purity is naturally lower