Patent ID: 7305850

Claim:
A process for distilling a fluid mixture in a microchannel distillation unit, the microchannel distillation unit comprising a plurality of microchannel distillation sections, each microchannel distillation section comprising a liquid inlet and a liquid outlet and a vapor inlet and a vapor outlet, the fluid mixture comprising a more volatile component and a less volatile component, the process comprising: flowing a vapor phase of the fluid mixture in the first microchannel distillation section in contact with a liquid phase of the fluid mixture, part of the more volatile component transferring from the liquid phase to the vapor phase to form a more volatile component rich vapor phase, part of the less volatile component transferring from the vapor phase to the liquid phase to form a less volatile component rich liquid phase; separating the more volatile component rich vapor phase from the less volatile component rich liquid phase; flowing the less volatile component rich liquid phase to the another microchannel distillation section upstream from the first microchannel distillation section; and flowing the more volatile rich vapor phase to the another microchannel distillation section downstream from the first microchannel distillation section.