Micro-scale distillation: simulation

Microchannel technology as applied to chemical processing has resulted in impressive improvements in performance thresholds. Studies published for more than a decade show that enhanced performance in chemical reactors can be largely attributed to the reduction of transport distances. Chemical distillation is now emerging as a new area for the application of microchannel technology. A simplified method for simulating a microchannel distillation process has been developed and validated with experimental data. Both simulation and experiments show that the height of a theoretical transfer unit for the separation of hexane and cyclohexane in a microchannel distillation unit is reduced to centimetres. Vapour-side resistance was found to control mass transfer for the cases considered. The current simulation can serve as a tool for optimizing and refining the design of multiphase microchannel processes.