Feasibility study of heterogeneous batch extractive distillation

Feasibility of batch heterogeneous extractive distillation is Studied in the case where the heterogeneous azeotrope formed with the entrainer is not the most volatile point in the system. The composition profile maps based feasibility methodology is extended to this case, and demonstrated on the test problem of separating water from acetonitrile with butyl acetate as entrainer. Whether the process is anyhow feasible and if one or two Column sections are needed for feasible separation were questions answered by the feasibility study. The appropriate operation steps (i.e. the separation sequence) and the effect of the feed ratio and reflux ratio on the feasibility are also determined according to the short-cut calculated profile maps. The results are verified by rigorous computation With ProsimBatch((c)).