4 .

0 Result and Discussion

Table 4.1: Refractive index for each acetone-water mixtures

Volumeof
Acetone (mL) 0 2 5 10 15 18 20

Volume of

Water (mL) 20 18 15 10 5 2 0

Mole of Acetone 0.000 0.027 0.068 0.135 0.203 0.243 0.270

Mole of Water 1.110 0.999 0.833 0.555 0.278 0.111 0

Mole Percentage
of Acetone (%) 0.00 2.63 7.55 19.57 42.20 68.64 100.00

Refractive Index 1.333 1.338 1.338 1.359 1.365 1.363 1.359

Specific Gravity of Water = 1000 g/L

Specific Gravity of Acetone = 0.785

Molecular Weight of Acetone = 58.08 g/mol

Molecular Weight of Water = 18.015 g/mol

Figure 4.1: Graph of refractive index against %-mole acetone

 Graph of refractive index versus %-mole acetone
1.37
f(x) = - 0x^2 + 0x + 1.33

1.36

1.35

1.34
Refractive Index

1.33

1.32

1.31
0 20 40 60 80 100 120

Mole percentage of acetone in mixture (% mol / mol)

From Figure 4.1, polynomial graph of refractive index versus mole percentage of acetone
in mixture was plotted. Based on the graph, the refractive index of acetone will increase
when the methanol concentration increases. However, there was an optimum value of the
refractive index. After it reached the maximum point, the value of the refractive index will
decrease until 100% mole percentage of acetone which was at 1.359.

Based on the experiment that has been done, it can be seen that the refractive index
for pure water is 1.333 whereas the refractive index for pure acetone is 1.359. The result is
similar to the standard refractive index for pure water and acetone at temperature 25C which
are 1.333 and 1.359 respectively.

In acetone-water mixture, the refractive index is increasing as the concentration of

acetone increases until it reaches the optimum point. After that, the value of the refractive
index decreases until acetone reaches 100% concentration. However, not all the solution give
the same refractive index appearance like acetone. It depends on the purity of the solution
being used and its temperature.

Referring to Figure 4.1, the mole percentage of acetone in the experiment can be
determined by referring to the refractive index. By using the equation obtained from the
 graph which is y = -8E-06x2 + 0.0011x + 1.3346 , the mole percentage of acetone can
be determined.

Table 4.2: Experimental data

5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60
Time(s)
71 72 72 72 73 73 74 74 75 75 76 76
Temperature
mixture
(C)
56 50 52 52 51 50 52 52 57 58 57 57
Temperature
distillate
(C)
220 210 210 190 185 170 170 160 160 150 145 140
Volume
distillate
(mL)
1.36029 1.36027 1.36033 1.36050 1.36037 1.36027 1.36024 1.36025 1.36007 1.36006 1.36004 1.36000
Refractive
index(nD)
29.82 29.79 29.89 30.16 29.95 29.79 29.74 29.76 29.47 29.46 29.42 29.36
%Mole
Acetone

This experiment is carried out to separate acetone from the acetone-water mixture using a
distillation process. Distillation is a widely used method for separating mixtures based on
differences in the conditions required to change the phase of components of the mixture,
which is the boiling point. To separate a mixture of liquids, the liquid is heated to force
components, which have different boiling point to convert into the gas phase. The boiling
point of acetone is smaller than water which is 56C. So, acetone will change to gas phase
first. Then, acetone will be condensed to liquid phase and will be collected. The volume of
acetone collected and the refractive index of acetone collected are measured each 5 minutes
until 1 hour.

Figure 4.2 : Graph of % Mole Fraction Acetone vs Time

 Graph of % Mole Fraction Acetone vs Time
30.4
30.2
30
f(x) = - 0.01x + 30.07
29.8
29.6
% Mole fraction Acetone
29.4
29.2
29
28.8
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Time (s)

Figure 4.2 shows the graph of the percentage of mole fracrion versus time. The trend of the
graph is that the percentage of mole fraction of acetone is gradually decreasing with time.
This is due to the boiling of water and acetone. The boling of water (100C) is higher than
acetone(56C). This speeds up the distillation of acetone compared to water. Therefore, the
composition of acetone is higher than water at the early stage of distillation because acetone
will evaporate first due to its lower boiling point and then enters the product stream.
However, the results obtained from the experiment is inconsistent due to the low efficiency
of the distillation column and some errors throughout the experiment.

Figure 4.3 : Graph of Volume of Product Distillate vs Time

 Graph of Volume of Distillate vs Time
250

200 f(x) = - 1.48x + 223.79

150

Volume of Distillate (ml)

100

50

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Time (s)

Figure 4.3 shows the graph of volume of distillate versus time. Based on the graph, it
can be seen that the volume of distillate decreases when the time increase. Since acetone has
a lower boiling point than water, when the distillation proceeds for a longer time, the
composition of acetone will decrease. This is due to short interval of time for distillation
process.

There are some error occur during the experiment that might have reduced the accuracy of
the result of the experiment. Firstly, error occured during taking the reading of the refractive
index using the refractometer. The scale of refractometer is very small and difficult to read.
Secondly, during every collection of distillate, the closing of valve took some time; hence
there might be overflow of distillate into the reciever.

Figure 4.4 : Graph of Temperature of Distillate vs Time

 Graph of Temperature of Distillate vs Time
60
58
56
f(x) = 0.1x + 50.35
54
Temperature of Distillate (C) 52
50
48
46
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Time (s)

Figure 4.4 shows the graph of temperature of distillate versus time. The graph shows
that the boiling point of acetone is 56C. The real boiling point of acetone is 56C.This shows
that the acetone started evaporating at its real boiling point as the first collection of acetone
was taken at that temperature. The temperature of distillate did not remain but fluctuated
througout the experiment. This might be because of some surrounding factors. During the
experiment, taking the concern that the first drop taking a long time to form, the lab assistant
kept on adjusting the rotator to vary the speed of the stirrer. This might have cooled down the
mixture a little before heating up back. Secondly, on the day of experiment, the weather was
quite cold and the air humidity was high. This might have affected the temperature which
went up and down mostly. The acetone evaporates first and enters the product distillate
stream compared to water. The boiling point of water is 100C.

Figure 4.5: Graph of Composition of product distillate versus volume of distillate

 Graph of composition of product distillate vs. volume
30.4
30.2
30
f(x) = 0.01x + 28.57
29.8
29.6
Composion of product distillate(%)
29.4
29.2
29
28.8
120 140 160 180 200 220 240

Volume of distillate(mL)

Figure 4.5 shows the graph of composition of product distillate versus volume of product
distillate. Based on the graph, it can be seen that the composition of product distillate
decreases as the volume of distillate decreases. When the distillation proceeds for a longer
time, the volume of distillate will decrease. Lesser the volume of distillate, lesser amount of
acetone will be present in the distillate. This is due to short interval of time for distillation
process.

It can be concluded that the graphs obtained by plotting the data obtained from the
experiments are following the theoretical value. The existence of an error during the
experiment resulted in a graph of acetone distillate composition against volume somewhat
deviated from the trend should. . This in turn affects the efficiency of the packed reactor
column resulted in low efficiency. There are various factors that affect the efficiency of the
plant including environmental factors, internal factors and human negligence itself . One of it
is weather condition. The distillation column is open to atmosphere , although it is insulated,
the weather condition would still affect the overall efficiency of the packed column. Apart
from that, vapor condition being too low or excessive would also affect the overall efficiency.
The state of feed mixture and its composition also affects the efficiency. However, no plant
can achieve 100% of efficiency due to the thermodynamic law. but, we can try to reduce the
them . To reduce inefficiency of plant, precautions should be given importance while
conducting the experiments. Based on the graph, the overall efficiency of the reactor column
is averagely good.
CALCULATION :

For 2mL acetone in 18mL of water:

Calculation of number of mole of acetone :

[(2 mL/1000mL/L) * (0.785)*(1000g/L)/(58.05g/ mol)] = 0.027 mol

Calculation of number of mole of water:

[(18 mL/1000mL/L)* 1000g/L)/(18.015 g/ mol)] = 0.999 mol

Calculation of mole percentage of acetone :

[0.027/(0.027+ 0.999)] *100= 2.63 %

Calculation for % Mole Acetone from refractive index :

From Figure 4.1,
y=8 106 x 2+ 0.0011 x+ 1.3346

For refractive index = 1.36029

6 2
1.36029=8 10 x + 0.0011 x+1.3346

Solve for quadratic equation,

x=29.82

The same calculation method was applied for other data.

5.0 Conclusion

From Figure 4.1, the refractive index increases with increasing concentration of the
acetone solution until it reaches a maximum value and then began to drop until it reaches the
refractive index for pure acetone at room temperature. However, the result from Figure 4.2
and Figure 4.3 do not demonstrate the desired theoretical value. This is largely due to the
systematic error of the experiment, packed distillation column and the inaccurate reading of
the refractive index. The result from Figure 4.2 exhibits a slight decline of trend in
comparison with the real theoretical graph which is constant whereas Figure 4.3 displays that
volume of distillate decreases with increasing period. Figure 4.4 shows that the temperature
of distillate increases over time. Figure 4.5, composition of product distillate increases while
the volume decreases.