Distillation: Principles and Practices

A completely thorough and up-to-date guide to modern distillation methods and their applications

Distillation has been used for separating liquid mixtures for more than two thousand years, and it continues to be the most widely used separation technique in key industries throughout the industrialized world. Although the basic principles have remained the same since the days of the ancient Egyptians, new distillation and distillation control methods continue to be developed to satisfy a variety of highly specialized requirements.

Encyclopedic in scope, this book provides distillation technicians with a uniquely comprehensive, up-to-date account of distillation methods currently employed in the oil, petrochemical, chemical, and pharmaceutical industries. The authors begin by acquainting readers with the principles of vapor-liquid equilibrium and the essential calculations for determining phase equilibria and equilibrium curves. Subsequent chapters are devoted to practical discussions of virtually all modern distillation methods, including batch, single stage, multistage continuous, multistage batch, and others. A wide array of industrial applications are described, including everything from crude oil distillation and argon recovery from air to water purification and ammonia recovery from wastewater. Special sections deal with the separation of azeotropic mixtures and the energy demand of distillation processes. Concluding chapters are devoted to detailed, extremely well illustrated descriptions of practical equipment design and modern distillation control methods.

Distillation: Principles and Practice is an indispensable working resource for distillation technicians working in the oil, petrochemical, chemical, and pharmaceutical industries.

JOHANN G. STICHLMAIR, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the Technical University of Munich, Germany.

JAMES R. FAIR, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Texas and a member of the University's Separation Research Program.