Equilibrium Flash Vaporization (EFV)

Equilibrium flash vaporization involves heating a flowing feed and the separation of the liquid and vapor in a flash drum. A distillation curve may be obtained by conducting this distillation at varying heater outlet temperatures. Figure 4.9 shows the diagram of an EFV set up and compares the distillation curves from the three methods, TBP, ASTM, and EFV. From the comparison of the curves and the relationship between IBP and EP obtained in each case, one concludes that EFV gives the lowest degree of separation between A and B, even lower than that given by the ASTM distillation.

Figure 4.9. Equilibrium Flash Vaporization (EFV) and comparison of distillation curves for EFV, ASTM, and TBP distillation of the binary mixture A and B.