PURIFICATION OF ORGANIC COMPOUNDS BY THERMAL DIFFUSION.

The primary objective of this investigation is to provide experimental data and theoretical developments which will assist in the understanding and exploitation of thermal diffusion as a liquid phase separation technique. This program has encompassed six major phases 1 investigation of the effect of packing permeability on the steady state separations obtained in a homogeneously packed, batch-operated, thermogravitational column, 2 investigation of the effect of a polar solvent species on the separation of a binary nonpolar system, 3 investigation of the effect of feed flow rate on continuous-operated packed column performance, 4 investigation of means for predicting the occurrence of the forgotten effect reversed or altered separations resulting from the significant dependence of the density andor the Soret Coefficient on concentration, 5 investigation of the effect of the physicochemical properties of a binary system on the variation of the steady state separation with packing permeability for the case of a binary liquid system undergoing separation in a homogeneously packed, batch-operated, thermogravitational column, and 6 investigation of the steady state separation characteristics of a nonhomogeneously packed, batch-operated, thermogravitational column. Thermal diffusion separation experiments were performed using tubular thermogravitational columns packed with glass beads and glass wool.