Prode Properties
Properties of pure fluids and mixtures, multi phase equilibria, process simulation, software

Title : Distillation column absorber stripper fractionation with Excel , OpenOffice, Python, C++ ... software

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Distillation

Distillation is a separation process widely applied in chemical industry, it can provide a good method for separating a mixture of volatile components except for a few cases such as when the components have similar boiling points...
The separation is achieved by the contact between the rising vapors and the liquid flowing down inside the column. The vapor leaving a stage is richer than the feed in the more volatile components while the liquid leaving a stage is richer than the feed in the less-volatile components. To promote the contact between vapor and liquid flows the columns contain devices which may be grouped into two general categories : Tray-type and Packing-type. In general, one can solve a distillation column by considering the overall system :

Distillation column stages, heat and mass balance

Rigorous methods describe columns as a group of equations, for steady state operations these are the so called MESH equations :

There are several rigorous computational methods for solving these sets of equations, Prode Properties adopts different procedures based on quasi-Newton or Newton solvers which are selected according the problem to solve.

Solve a distillation column with Microsoft Excel

With Prode Properties you can solve staged columns with one or more feeds and one or more side streams, this Excel application example shows how to specify inputs and print in Excel a detailed table with results

Load the predefined Excel page, specify the problem and get the results

From Excel menu File->open , in Excel folder (in Prode Properties installation) select the file column.xls

Excel spreadsheet examples

The predefined page allows to define and solve different kind of columns, distillation columns with reboiler and condenser, absorbers etc. with one or more feeds and one or more side streams...

Distillation Column in Excel

The steps to define a column are easy to follow :

To edit / modify a feed just click on the related feed's button to access the stream's editor

Distillation Column, edit feed

Once the column has been defined it is suggested to verify the input data specifically for inconsistent specifications, if you are sure that all is Ok run the solver (button Solve Column)

Distillation Column report in Excel

The procedure prints a detailed report which includes :

Prode Properties, technical features overview

Typical applications