Chemical Engineering Design E Ventura-Medina

Motivation Vapour-Liquid equilibrium in binary mixtures Flash Distillation Multi-stage distillation

Material and energy balances Operating lines Reflux Number of equilibrium stages (McCabeThiele)

Purification

Separation

Example
A process produces a product B from reactant A with only limited conversion, so that the reactor outlet contains 60 mol% A and 40 mol% B. It is desirable to separate the reactant (A) from the product (B) in order to recycle the reactants and to obtain a high purity product. We will choose a basis of 100 kmol of reactor product. 60% (on a

mole basis) of the mixture is boiled off to produce a vapour rich in A and a liquid rich in B.

60 kmol yA kmol A/kmol yB = (1-yA) kmol B/kmol

100 kmol 0.6 kmol A/kmol 0.4 kmol B/kmol

Boiling solution at TC

Heat

40 kmol xA kmol A/kmol xB = (1-xA) kmol B/kmol

Balance for A: Balance for B:

For an ideal solution (where equal forces act between molecules of {A and A}, {A and B} and {B and B}) we can use Raoults law. Raoults law states that the vapour pressure exerted by a component above an ideal solution is proportional to its mole fraction. The constant of proportionality is the vapour pressure of the pure component.
P0 B P y B = B x P0 B B P P0 A

= x

P0 B
P

P B

If A is hexane, B is octane, P = 760 mm Hg and the solution is boiling at 94C at which temperature P = 288 mm Hg, determine xA and yA for the previous example.
xB PB0 and the material balance equation Hint: use yB P

Solve the problem above if P = 1578 mm Hg and P = 288 mm Hg and P is unknown.

Hint: divide yA by yB to eliminate P

For ideal solutions, the total vapour pressure above the solution P is thus

T - x - y plot for hexane and octane at 1 atmosphere total pressure

130 125 120 115 110
Temperature (degrees C)

105
100 y (mol hexane per mol vapour)

95
90 85 x 80 75 70 65

(mol hexane per mol liquid)

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

x or y, mol fraction of hexane in liquid/vapour

Vapour-liquid equilibrium for hexane/octane at P=1 atm.

0.9

0.8

0.7

y (mol fraction hexane in vapour)

0.6

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

0 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1 x (mol fraction hexane in liquid)