Distillation is the most widely used separation technique in the chemical process industries, responsible for purifying everything from petroleum fractions and pharmaceutical intermediates to drinking water and beverage spirits. The process exploits differences in component volatilities: when a liquid mixture is partially vaporized, the vapor phase enriches in the more volatile component while the liquid retains the heavier species. Understanding vapor-liquid equilibrium is the key to designing efficient columns.
These simulations let you step through McCabe-Thiele graphical constructions for binary distillation, solve isothermal flash drum mass balances, plot T-xy phase diagrams from Antoine correlations, explore Raoult's law for ideal solutions, and investigate azeotropic systems that defeat simple distillation — all with physically accurate thermodynamic models and animated canvas visualizations that update as you adjust parameters.