Definition of Pass-through Distillation
Reduced to its essentials, distillation is a two-step process, evaporation and condensation. These two steps are “coupled” because they are carried out at the same pressure. Pass-through distillation is a four step process, similar to simple distillation in that it begins by evaporating some feed liquid and ends by condensing it. These steps however are decoupled by an absorption step (step 2) and a desorption step (step 3) which involve a recirculating inventory of absorbent fluid. In…