salt-effect distillation

salt-effect distillation

Salt-effect distillation

A process of extractive distillation in which a salt that is soluble in the liquid phase of the system being separated is used in place of the normal liquid additive introduced to the extractive distillation column in order to effect the separation.

Extractive distillation is a process used to separate azeotrope-containing systems or systems in which relative volatility is excessively low. An additive, or separating agent, that is capable of raising relative volatility and eliminating azeotropes in the system being distilled is supplied to the column, where it mixes with the feed components and exerts its effect. The agent is subsequently recovered from one or both product streams by a separate process and recycled for reuse.

In salt-effect distillation, the process is essentially the same as for a liquid agent, although the subsequent process used to recover the agent for recycling is different; that is, evaporation is used rather than distillation. The salt is added to the system by being dissolved in the reentering reflux stream at the top of the column. Being nonvolatile, it will reside in the liquid phase, flowing down the column and out in the bottom product stream.

The major commercial use of salt-effect distillation is in the concentration of aqueous nitric acid, using the salt magnesium nitrate as the separating agent. Other commercial applications include acetone-methanol separation using calcium chloride and isopropanol-water separation using the same salt. See Azeotropic distillation