Part I

1. (20 Marks)
a) Ash wants to determine the bubble and dew point of a mixture of acetone, methanol
and water. He intends to use the Ideal method to find those parameters. However, his
tutor is not happy with the method he used. Why? Name other possible methods that
he can use and describe them.
b) What are the differences between DSTWU column with a RADFRAC column.
c) Compare the two component approaches and give an example of situation when these
approaches are used

Part II

1. (30 Marks) Eugenol is an allyl chain-substituted guaiacol. Eugenol is a member of

the phenylpropanoids class of chemical compounds. It is a clear to pale yellow oily liquid
extracted from certain essential oils especially from spices. Eugenol is used
in perfumeries, flavorings, essential oils and in medicine as a local antiseptic and
anesthetic.

Figure 1 : Molecular Structure of Eugenol

a. Perform a Property Constant Estimation run based on following information:

Formular: C10H12O2
Mass Density: 1.066 gm/cc
Molecular weight: 164.2011 kg/kmol
Normal boiling point: 254 °C

Antoine vapor pressure constants for 9 °C< T < 253.2 °C: P in mmHg.
log10P=8.3157-2768.17T+256.135

Submit your Apsen File: Eugenol.bkp.

b. Setup a flowsheet model for a process feed stream which consist of 70 mol%
eugenol and 30 mol% propyl isobutyrate at 1 bar and 60 °C. Assume ideal gas
law and Henry’s law. Propyl isobutyrate is in Aspen Plus data bank.
 i. What would be the maximum temperature that the stream could be heated
to and be all liquid?
ii. What would be the minimum temperature that the stream is heated to and
be all vapors?
iii. What is the temperature at which the stream is 50%liquid/50% vapor?
iv. Plot the t-xy diagram of the system and verify your answers of i), ii) and
iii). Submit your Apsen File: Q2b-Eugenol.bkp.
v. Find the dew point of pure Eugenol at 1 bar and 60 °C feed. Compare that
with the results of ii). Explain how to reduce the dew point of the mixture
of Eugenol and propyl isobutyrate at 1 bar and 60 °C.
Part II (Choose One)

1. Ammonia is essential for plant growth, metal treating operations, neutralization of acids at
mine sites and pharmaceuticals. Common industrial Ammonia synthesis processes use
syngas feed stream. The objective of this reactor project is to design an ammonia synthesis
plant and find the optimum operating conditions which will yield more than 2100 kmol/hr
Ammonia and minimum nitrogen percentage conversion of 95%. An example of Aspen
Plus flowsheet is given below. Peng-Robinson property method is recommended.

P UR G E

C OMP RES2 S PLI TTE R

V AP R EC

3
C OMP RE C

C OO L IN

C OMPRES1 MIXE R R GI BBS

HX
F LA S H

F EE D C OMP FE E D MIXF E ED 1 2

C OO L OU T
PRO D UC T

The following information is given:

N2+H2↔2NH3
An adiabatic RGibbs reactor is operated at a pressure of 100 bar. The input feed stream
for the process is 5500 kmol/hr at 40 °C and 2 bar at the following mole percentages:
74.2 mol% H2, 24.7 mol% N2, 0.8 mol% CH4, and 0.3 mol% Ar.

Isentropic compressor is used to increase the pressure of the mixed input feed stream and
recycle stream to 100 bar before entering the reactor.

The Tube & Shell heat exchanger following the reactor uses Ammonia at 2 bar, -40°C
and 200kmol/s as the refrigerant to cool down the process stream. Pressure drop in both
 hot side and cold side are 100 bar. Shortcut calculation for the design type simulation
with hot and cold streams outlet temperature approach is 5 °C. Accept other defaults.

The flash vessel is also operated at -30 °C and had a pressure drop of 5 bar. The purge is
operated at 6% of the flash tops stream.

a. Report the outlet temperature of the reactor in °C , the heat duties of the heat
exchanger and flash vessel in kW.
b. Report the percentage conversion of Nitrogen and generation of Ammonia.
Explain if the required objective has been met?
c. Setup a “Sensitivity Analysis” to examine the effect of the pressure of reactor on
the generation of ammonia in the product stream. What is the optimum operating
pressure which will yield the 2100 kmol/hr Ammonia.
Submit your Aspen File: Q2-Ammonia.bkp.
d. What are the required additional parameters if RPLUG has to be used instead of
RGIBBS?

4. A mixture of 150lb/hr containing 40.0 wt% acetone and 60.0 wt% water at 100F and
pressure of 50psi is to be separated into two streams – one enriched in acetone and
the other in water. The separation process consists of extraction of the acetone from
the water into methyl isobutyl ketone (MIBK) of feed 100 lb/hr. which dissolves
acetone but is nearly immiscible with water. The method used is NRTI. The pressure
and temperature of flash 1 are 50psi and 100F respectively. Draw the Aspen flowsheet
as below :

VAP OR OD

FLASH 1
MIXER 1

FEE D P RODU CT1 MA1

MIB K1

WA1

a) Report the mass flow of MA1 and WA1.

b) WA1 is mixed using a mixer with new feed of MIBK (MIBK2) of 100 lbs/hr (100 F and
50 psi) and the product is flash distillated using flash 3 ( 100F and 50 psi )to produce
 Vaprod2, WA2, MA2. Find the diffusivity coefficient of MA2 and WA2. (HINT: Select
TXPORT and make sure it is liquid phase in prop-sets-TXPORT)
c) What flowrate of new MIBK (MIBK2) is necessary to achieve 93% purity of the water
stream? (Set the target spec upper limits to 400 lbs/hr with the tolerance level to 0.001)
d) Now, MA1 and MA2 are mixed using a mixer and distillated using rad frac to produce
the final product of freewater, acetone and MIBK. Report the stream table and the mass
fraction of freewater, acetone and MIBK. The reflux ratio is 1.5 with the distillate
federate of 0.99. Take the number of stages to be 10 with vapor-liquid-freewater as the
valid phases. Assume the calculation type to be equilibrium.