Visualizing the McCabe-Thiele Diagram

摘要

Use this spreadsheet-based visualization and interactive analysis of the McCabe-Thiele diagram to understand the foundations of distillation engineering. More than 80 years ago, McCabe and Thiele developed a creative graphical solution technique based on Lewis's assumption of constant molal overflow (CMO) for the rational design of distillation columns (1). The McCabe-Thiele diagram enabled decades of effective design and operational analysis of distillation columns, and has-been used to teach several generations of chemical engineers to design and trouble-shoot distillation and other cascaded processes.