200 Years in Innovation of Continuous Distillation

Abstract

Distillation is one of the oldest and most frequently used purification methods today. In 1813, Jean‐Baptiste Cellier‐Blumenthal patented the first continuously working distillation column, starting an impressive development of process equipment. New product areas were discovered as well as improved equipment installations. 100 years ago, Fritz Raschig patented his rings as packing material. Current developments are guided by deeper knowledge of heat and mass transfer as well as the integration of various process functions.

Solvent selection for extractive distillation processes to separate close-boiling polar systems

“…( 1), a solvent is desired that interacts ideally with the highboiling component and repels the low-boiling component (or interact ideally with the low-boiling component and attracts the high-boiling component) (Doherty and Knapp, 2004). Next to improving ˛ of the binary mixture, the solvent should be chemically and thermally stable, non-toxic and non-corrosive, inexpensive, readily available and not reacting with one of the mixture components (Kockmann, 2014;Doherty and Knapp, 2004). Furthermore, it should be possible to regenerate the solvent so it can be recycled to the process (Jongmans et al, 2012b).…”

The Water of Life and Death: A Brief Economic History of Spirits

“…From then onwards, the new technology stimulated spirits production to shift to large-scale factory production with continuous stills that could produce higher volumes at a lower cost compared to the traditional pot still (Forbes, 1947). 43 42 An important predecessor in Coffey's work was Jean-Baptiste Cellier-Blumenthal (1768-1840, who started the development of process equipment (Kockmann, 2014). 43 Before the Industrial Revolution, much of the spirits were produced by women in small-scale distillation operations.…”

The Development of Stirring Technology from an Empirical Art to Science

“…While rectification due to the early identified high technical importance was scientifically developed as early as the end of the 17th century [2], the basic understanding of mixing processes did not begin until much later. In one of the first monographs on the subject stirring from 1911, the author Hermann Fischer [3] begins his preface by stating: ''Mixing has previously been treated almost merely incidentally''.…”