**5. Experiments with an extractive distillation pilot plant**

In this work, the analysis of mass transfer efficiency will be carried out also experimentally for the mixture toluene-methylcyclohexane to corroborate the results obtained from Aspen Plus®. For this purpose, a pilot-scale ED pilot plant was constructed at Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands equipped with Mellapack® 750Y structured packing and that operates in continuous mode. The column diameter is 0.049 m and the packing material is stainless steel. Finally, the packing height is 3.12 m. To validate the rate-based model with experimental data from the pilot plant, collector basins and thermocouples were placed within packing segments to collect liquid samples a measure the concentration of all the component in the column at defined height of the column. **Figure 2**, shows a scheme of the constructed ED pilot plant. The experimental operating conditions are described in **Table 3**.

Mass Transfer in Extractive Distillation when Using Ionic Liquids as Solvents http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.76544 113

**Figure 2.** Scheme of the extractive distillation pilot plant at Eindhoven University of Technology [38].


a 100% = 2.04 [kW].

**4. Simulation setup**

tion of water-ethanol.

value of flooding of 70%.

Mellapak® 205Y structured packing

flow and feeding concentration respectively [35].

**Sieve Tray**

ASPEN Plus® radfrac with the Rate-Sep package enables the use of the rate-based model to evaluate the effect of the solvent on the mass transfer efficiency in the ED process. This model needs physical and transport properties of both pure component and ternary mixture which were taken elsewhere [27, 37, 44]. Column internals are other parameters that have to be defined. Sieve trays and Mellapak® 250Y are the selected internals for this study. **Table 2** summarized the features of these internals. These internals will be used to analyze the separa-

112 Heat and Mass Transfer - Advances in Modelling and Experimental Study for Industrial Applications

It is worth to mention that, vapor flow regimes inside the ED column could also affect mass transfer efficiency. However, to avoid this effect, these flow regimes were set constant at a

**Parameter Value** Number of stages (real stages including reboiler and condenser) 22 Feed tray 12 Solvent feed 2

**Parameter Value**

Packing material Stainless steel

Packing height (m) 6 Feed point (m) 3

**5. Experiments with an extractive distillation pilot plant**

In this work, the analysis of mass transfer efficiency will be carried out also experimentally for the mixture toluene-methylcyclohexane to corroborate the results obtained from Aspen Plus®. For this purpose, a pilot-scale ED pilot plant was constructed at Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands equipped with Mellapack® 750Y structured packing and that operates in continuous mode. The column diameter is 0.049 m and the packing material is stainless steel. Finally, the packing height is 3.12 m. To validate the rate-based model with experimental data from the pilot plant, collector basins and thermocouples were placed within packing segments to collect liquid samples a measure the concentration of all the component in the column at defined height of the column. **Figure 2**, shows a scheme of the constructed ED pilot plant. The experimental operating conditions are described in **Table 3**.

**Table 2.** Used column internal characteristics in the simulations for 100 kg/h of mixture and 50% wt ethanol as a base

**Table 3.** Operating conditions [38].
