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Chemistry Forums for Students => Physical Chemistry Forum => Topic started by: schnorch on March 06, 2021, 04:17:18 PM

Title: Distillation terminology: "rectification index"
Post by: schnorch on March 06, 2021, 04:17:18 PM: Hello,

I have a pdf of a study about distillation of spirits and it uses the term "rectification index". They don't write, what this means unfortunately. It could be the reflux ratio or prehaps it means something like "theoretical distillations", so rectification index = 1 would mean perhaps one additional distillation provided by the column.

I googled it. But this term is not used regularily. Perhaps a member here knows it?

Thanks
Title: Re: Distillation terminology: "rectification index"
Post by: billnotgatez on March 07, 2021, 12:21:54 AM: @schnorch
You have probably seen this

Quote
Rectified spirit
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rectified spirit, also known as neutral spirits, rectified alcohol, or ethyl alcohol of agricultural origin is highly concentrated ethanol that has been purified by means of repeated distillation in a process called rectification. In some countries, denatured alcohol or denatured rectified spirit may commonly be available as "rectified spirit".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rectified_spirit (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rectified_spirit)
From the article it seems that definition depends on location.
What country was your pdf from?
Title: Re: Distillation terminology: "rectification index"
Post by: schnorch on March 07, 2021, 03:44:45 AM: I am searching for "rectification index", not "rectified spirit".

The pdf is from Croatia. The study is something like ten years old.

I have found another pdf from the same institute. And there is this picture of a still with "rectification index 1".
I understand how this still works, but again I don't understand, what this index exactly means.
Title: Re: Distillation terminology: "rectification index"
Post by: AWK on March 07, 2021, 10:29:06 AM: Probably this is a synonym of a more used reflux ratio.