Packed Horizontal Ethanol Distillation Column , Fractional Distillation Tower

Packed Tower Fractional Distillation Column for CBD / THC / Hemp oil

——Operation

Feed liquid is admitted into still under high vacuum, immediately spread into a very thin film and forced quickly down the evaporation surface. Heated walls and high vacuum drive the more volatile components (distillate) to the external condenser as the less volatile components (residue) continue down the cylinder. The resulting fractions, thus separated, exit through individual discharge outlets. Depending on application, the desired product is either the distillate or the residue fraction. Small amounts of condensable low MW compounds collect in cold trap upstream of vacuum system. For high solvent loads, an optional external condenser may be installed immediately downstream of the still.

The two major types of Fractional Distillation Columns used are tray and packing columns. Packing columns are normally used for smaller towers and loads that are corrosive or temperature sensitive or for vacuum service where pressure drop is important. Tray columns, on the other hand, are used for larger columns with high liquid loads. They first appeared on the scene in the 1820s. In most oil refinery operations, tray columns are mainly used for the separation of petroleum fractions at different stages of oil refining.

In the oil refining industry, the design and operation of Fractional Distillation Columns is still largely accomplished on an empirical basis. The calculations involved in the design of petroleum fractionation columns require in the usual practice the use of numerable charts, tables and complex empirical equations. In recent years, however, a considerable amount of work has been done to develop efficient and reliable computer-aided design procedures for Fractional Distillation Column.