Method and apparatus for high volume fractional distillation of liquids

摘要

A method and apparatus for high volume distillation of impure liquid, particularly of binary mixtures of relatively low boiling organic substances and water, comprises fractionally distilling the impure liquid to form a vapor of a low boiling organic substance; compressing the vapor; passing at least a portion of the compressed vapor through a vapor composition adjustment zone wherein the organic substance may catalytically or otherwise react or merely stabilize following compression; compressing the vapor exiting the adjustment zone to form a recompressed vapor; cooling the recompressed vapor in heat transfer relation with the impure liquid whereby the vapor at least partially condenses, transferring sufficient heat to the impure liquid for evaporating the liquid and to form the aforementioned low boiling organic vapor; and collecting the condensed low boiling organic vapor. In various embodiments of the invention the vapor exiting the adjustment zone may be expanded through an expansion engine and/or a portion of the compressed vapor may bypass the adjustment zone and/or the expansion engine and admix with the remainder of the vapor passing through the adjustment zone and/or expansion engine. Work may be added to the expansion engine by mechanical means, such as motor means, drivingly linked to the engine, by admixing hot gases directly with the compressed vapor passing through the expansion engine, by a combination of direct mechanical drive and direct mixing of hot gases, or by other suitable means. The method and apparatus are particularly suitable for producing substantially anhydrous ethyl alcohol.