Distillation in a rotating packed bed

This work presents a novel rotating packed bed owing to its applicability in distillation. Distillation experiments were conducted using the methanol-ethanol system at atmospheric pressure and total reflux conditions with two packings. Rotor speeds ranged from 600 to 1600 rpm, which provided 42-298 equivalent gravitational force. Experimental results indicated that 1-3 theoretical plates were achieved with a packing thickness of 8.6 cm. Consequently, the height equivalent of a theoretical plate (HETP) of about 3-9 cm can be obtained in a rotating packed bed, i.e., much lower than that in a conventional packed bed. An empirical correlation was also proposed, implying that the HETP value varied with centrifugal force to the 0.23-0.26 power.