Distiller design to separate acetone and toluene mixtures for reuse in lab operations

Abstract

            Every week, a chemical engineering laboratory used for teaching has to dispose of 10 litres of chemical waste. Such waste includes chemicals like acetone and toluene, which cannot be recycled. The purpose of this study was to collect data in order to design, assemble and optimized the stage-wise refining of acetone and toluene mixtures by distillation. This process used the ASTM-D86 standard method.

            The data from the standard process was then used to design and define specific distillation conditions. A distillation refinery was designed and implemented for the specific mole fraction of 0.07 acetone in toluene, with a 4:1 reflux ratio and 40 cm length of packing. At the optimized temperature, the heating efficiency was estimated at 1,200 W. The results showed that the first 100 mL of production had molar purity of about 0.9835, while the rest in the boiler had a mole fraction of about 0.0460. The McCabe-Thiele method was used to estimate the theoretical number of plates (trays) at 6.