Answer to Question #235766 in Chemical Engineering for Thanatos

Question

A mixture containing 10% ethanol (E) and 90% H2O (W) by weight is fed into a distillation column at the rate of 107.24 kg/h. The distillate (top product) contains 94.54 % ethanol and the distillate is produced at a rate of one tenth of that of the feed.

Draw and label a flow chart of the process before solving the problem. Perform material (total) and ethanol balances to calculate the mass fraction of ethanol in the bottom product to at least four decimal places.

Answer 1

With the data provided, we can plot this as follows:

Calculations:

With this, we obtain: 0.7554 ( to four decimal points)