Running a Distillation Column is harder said than done

At first it will seem like insulated glass tubes connected to complex front end dials and knobs and valves and software.

A day or two running up and down the stairs along the height of the column, and it's just another peaceful system offering no complicated resistance.

Running the column is one thing, understanding it is another. Mixing solutions and then letting the column unmix them is essentially the task. A very clever pump setup uses just one pump to operate the tanks to move solutions between the makeup, bottoms and distillate; one to feed and one to empty the column. A neat order of steps to switch on the utilities, namely air(controllers), heat(steam), water(cooling) is the precursor to actual running.

How does one know the column is working fine? Well, the more volatile should stay at top of column and least volatile at bottom. Filling up of 'trays' with either(flooding), stopping proper interaction of the substances is not preferred.

The main constraint is 'What can go wrong?' Well, here there isn't much that can go catastrophically wrong.... If the column doesn't have anything to process(excessive flooding/feed is low) steam is being unused which can cause steam coils to .............. maybe fail?

A perfectly running column is a beauty to behold. An hour of perfect alignments of turning down steam to stop flooding and allowing feed as required yields sweet fruits. Of course, opting to get a distillate, rather that turn the distillate back into the column(infinite reflux) gives you near-pure product.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the main purpose of a distillation column