Experimental And Theoretical Studies Of Countercurrent Solvent-Gas Extraction .2. Construction And Operation Of A Laboratory Differential Vapor Absorption Column

The construction and operation of a simple 30 mm differential vapour-absorption column are described, the column being packed with a knitted wire packing. The results of separations of binary volatile mixtures are reported and analysed by means of a multistage computation procedure. It has been confirmed that in accordance with theoretical prediction, the separation efficiency can be improved in some cases by imposing longitudinal temperature differences in the column. Computed values of HETP are reported which show a linear increase with solvent rate in the range 0·2-1·01/hr. For the same loadings, HETP values are 50–300 per cent greater than for continuous gas chromatography and are about four times greater than those measured for a normal distillation process using the same packing material.