Distillation column
AssigneeUniversity of Florida
InventorsFerdinand le Grand, Carlos E. Odio
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A stripping column is comprised of one or more mixing channels situated in parallel arrangement, each channel in the form of a zigzag strip through which liquid cascades in a series of falls alternating with a corresponding series of pools. Simultaneously, vapor travels upwardly in a counter-current manner, intimately mixing with the liquid when forced through each successive pool. The column is especially useful in separating alcohol from fermented mash. The column is preferably employed with three other identical columns in a parallelogram structure to make a distillation unit of greater efficiency and capacity.
Claims3
A distillation column for the separation of a vapor from a mixture of liquid and vaporizable components comprising four substantially identical column sections arranged in the shape of a parellelogram symmetrical about a central vertical plane, each column section forming one side of the parallelogram with the two columns on each side of said plane forming two parallel flow halves of said column, each section having a thin elongated ribbon channel for vapor-liquid flow formed by spaced angularly corrugated top and bottom walls oriented with one end of the channel at an elevation higher than the other end such that the channel will form a consecutive series of pools of liquid flowing downwardly by gravity, each pool separated from the next adjacent pool by a vapor space through which vapor flows upwardly, means for introducing said mixture of liquid and vaporizable components at the top of said halves, means for introducing heated vapor at the bottom of said halves, means for removing vapor at the top of said halves, and means for removing liquid at the bottom of said halves.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.