Distillation Columns: How Plants Split Mixtures

Deep End Era. Engineering with Sankalp · Oct 11, 2026 · 54m

A flooded aromatics splitter sends fictional process engineer Mira Hensley into the physics of separation. Explore vapour-liquid equilibrium, relative volatility, trays and packing, reflux, feed-stage placement, reboilers, condensers and pressure. The episode connects azeotropes and heat integration to the operating problems of flooding, weeping and foaming. Story characters, facilities and story figures are fictional and illustrative.

Chapters

00:00:00 Cold open: the column that would not settle

00:03:08 Vapour-liquid equilibrium and relative volatility

00:08:26 The column as a cascade of…