The internet is brimming with useful tools to help you learn about separation processes. Please send me ([email protected]) links to other useful resources that you might know about.

LearnChemE   This is a huge learning site with videos, simulations, modules, and other resources for most topics in chemical engineering, including separations.

ChemSep   This site includes a free distillation column simulator. Quoting from the web site, "ChemSep is a column simulator for distillation, absorption, and extraction operations. It combines the classic equilibrium stage column model with a nonequilibrium (rate-based) column model in one easy and intuitive interface. Test-drive the equilibrium column model and convince yourself with the free ChemSep LITE with up to 40 components and 300 equilibrium stages using a database covering 400+ chemicals."

Refinery Crude Oil Distillation Process - This is an old training video. It is a very thorough explanation of a distillation tower and includes many important terms not discussed in the book. This includes such basic ideas as the "rectifying" and "stripping" sections of a column.

Fractional Distillation  This is a nice YouTube video from ChemSurvival illustrating the concept of fractional distillation. Do you see an important simplification they make? The source is a boiling pot of the chemical mixture, equimolar benzene and toluene. Simple boiling produces ~80 mol% benzene. But as the distillation proceeds, the pot becomes richer in toluene and the vapor becomes less concentrated in benzene. Only the first bubble of vapor is 80 mol%. This is a feature of batch distillation - not continuous.  

Azeotrope Experiment  This YouTube video demonstrates a laboratory experiment to determine the azeotrope composition of a water - n-propanol mixture. She starts with pure alcohol and adds small amounts of water. Each time, she collects the distillate and residual liquid for analysis. When the compositions become equal, the azeotrope is reached. I recommend that the hood be closed as much as you can without impeding your work. Also, especially for more hazardous chemicals, I would recommend nitrile gloves.