Based on the CMO (constant molal overflow) assumption, this Demonstration shows plots of the composition (curves in blue, yellow, and green for benzene, toluene, and -xylene, respectively) and the temperature of the distillate versus time, for a boil-up rate of . You can set the values of the reflux ratio and the number of stages . The separation is perfect when and are large (see Snapshots 1 and 2). It is clear that one can collect a high-purity cut every time the distillate temperature reaches one of the plateaus (as in Snapshot 2). On the other hand, for low values of the reflux ratio and number of plateaus, the separation is sloppy (see Snapshots 3 and 4).