Separation by Flashing

A mixture of two liquids or a liquid and vapor can be separated by passing it to a flash drum at a fixed temperature and pressure. The mixture is allowed to reach equilibrium (or near it), and then the vapor exits the top and the liquid exits the bottom of the drum. This separates the components somewhat, provided that the temperature is chosen between the boiling temperatures of the components of the mixture at the pressure of the drum. The degree of separation depends on the composition of the mixture, the concentrations of the species in the mixture, and the temperature and pressure. Having data such as fugacity data or even vapor pressures for simple modelling like Raoult's Law is invaluable when choosing the operating conditions. When a solution boils, the resulting gas is still a mixture, but the gaseous mixture will in general have more of the lower-boiling compound than the higher-boiling compound. Therefore, a higher-boiling compound can be separated from the lower-boiling compound by simply allowing part of the solution to boil and part to remain as liquid