Question

What does high reflux ratio mean?

(a) Higher purity of the distillate

(b) Lower purity of the distillate

(c) Collection rate will be higher

(d) Does not depend on purity and collection rate

The question was posed to me at a job interview.

My question comes from Distillation of Binary Mixtures in chapter Distillation of Food Processing Unit Operations

Answer 1

Right choice is (a) Higher purity of the distillate

Easiest explanation: The higher the reflux ratios, more contact of vapor/liquid occur in the distillation column. Therefore a higher reflux ratio means higher purity of the distillate and also means that the distillate will have slower collection rate.