ABSTRACT

Distillation is a process to separate the component substance from a fluid mixture through
evaporation and condensation. The objective of this experiment is to plot the calibration curve
of refractive index (RI) versus wt% ethanol. A composition of pure ethanol and pure water
mixture was prepared, and the refractive index of the ethanol-water mixture are measured
using the refractometer. By using the data obtained, calibration curve is plotted. From the
calibration curve, the diluted composition of bottom (XB) and diluted (XD) samples are
calculated. The result shows that XB and XD are 43.55 wt% and 64.10 wt%, respectively.
Second objective is to determine the number of theoretical plates at total reflux using the X-Y
equilibrium diagram. The actual sample composition of the bottom and distillate samples
collected are calculated to identify the number of theoretical plates. The number of theoretical
stages obtained from the X-Y equilibrium diagram is 0.68 stages. Third objective is to
investigate the Murphee efficiency (EmL) for each tray in the column. Based on the result
obtained, the efficiency for each tray in the column is 2. Forth objective is to plot the graph of
temperature and composition profile versus tray number. The result shows that the
temperature decreases as the number of trays increases. The result also shows that the
ethanol composition is decreasing as the number of tray increases. To improve the accuracy
of the results, it is recommended for the process to have longer retention time in the column
so that the difference in composition of the ethanol at the distillate and bottom will be bigger.
To have obtain more significant results, the initial composition of ethanol-water mixture should
be increased. Other than that, the comparisons of effect of total reflux on batch distillation can
be generalised by repeating the experiment with different combination of mixture.