What is the significance of controlling the temperature at the bottom of a distillation column?
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What is the significance of controlling the temperature at the bottom of a distillation column?
The stability of the temperature control at the bottom of the distillation column directly determines the quality and efficiency of separation in that column. Controlling the temperature at the bottom of the distillation column is an important means of ensuring efficient separation of products and obtaining products of high purity. Maintaining a normal temperature at the bottom of the tower helps prevent the loss of light fractions and improves the recovery rate of the material ； It can also reduce the contaminating effect of residual materials.
The bottom temperature of the tower is closely related to its separation efficiency; if the temperature is too low, the content of light components at the bottom of the tower may exceed the desired level. If the temperature is too high, the reflux ratio increases, resulting in waste of thermal energy at the bottom of the tower and waste of recycled water at the top.
In the case of simple distillation, an increase in the temperature of the reactor indicates that the light components are decreasing, and it’s time to raise the temperature. If continuous distillation is carried out and the temperature in the reactor changes, it will affect the content of the light components obtained through distillation, as well as cause fluctuations throughout the entire system.
Simple distillation wasn’t explained clearly here; let me explain it again. At the beginning, the temperature of the reactor gradually increases, and slowly the top temperature also rises, until light components emerge and the top temperature stabilizes. The temperature of the kettle will continue to rise, which indicates that the light components are gradually decreasing. If the reactor temperature is not controlled, it is impossible to determine when the light components have been completely separated. However, simple distillation is now very rare.
Ensure that all the light components are vaporized; if the temperature of the reactor is too low, material carryover will definitely be severe