CHEE3004 Unit Operations

McCabe-Thiele Method &

Multicomponent Distillation
Greg Siemon
Contact details
Office: Not UQ Based
Email: g.siemon@uq.edu.au
Semester consultation hours:
By arrangement

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 Week 9 Tasks
1. Attend Monday 14:00 lecture
2. Attend Wednesday 12:00 lecture
3. Read for this Lecture
Towler & Sinnott Chapter 17 Sections 17.1-17.5 & 17.10
4. Attend Wednesday Tutorial (2:00-4:00 or 4:00-6:00)
DA4 – Compulsory Attendance to get a mark for DA4
5. Complete DA4
Due 17:00 Monday in Blackboard

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 Lecture Outline / Agenda
• MBEB4 Question 1 Solution
– Minimum Stages
– Minimum Reflux
– Optimum Feed location
• Multicomponent Distillation

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 Objectives of this session
• Understand McCabe-Thiele method and concept of minimum reflux,
minimum stages and how to determine the optimal stage for the feed
to the column
• Understand how multicomponent distillation differs from Binary
distillation

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 MBEB4 Question 1 Solutions
• Refer to Excel Spreadsheet solutions

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 MBEB4 Summary
• Minimum stages/Total Reflux
– Occurs when operating lines (rectifying and stripping) lie on the
x=y line.
– Separation achieved using minimum stages (ie biggest steps
possible)
– Corresponds to total reflux (ie all of the top product is returned to
the column as reflux ie D=0). Separation achieved but no top
product actually able to be taken out.
• Minimum Reflux/Infinite Stages
– Occurs when operating lines (rectifying and stripping) and q-line
line all intersect at equilibrium line.
– Separation achieved using minimum reflux but requires infinite
stages to separate components. (Smallest/most steps).

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 Optimum Stage for Feed
• Occurs at the xy Plot - 1.5x Minimum Reflux
closest to the 1

4
3
2 1
xD

point where 0.9

5
the q-line 0.8

intersects the 0.7

molefraction acetone, y
equilibrium 0.6 6 z

line. 0.5

• Here it would 0.4

7
be Stage 3. 0.3

0.2

8
0.1
xB
0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
mole fraction acetone, x

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 MULTICOMPONENT
DISTILLATION
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 Multicomponent Distillation
• Multicomponent Distillation is much more common than
binary distillation
• Multicomponent when number of components is >2.
• Generalise by talking about n components where n>2.
• As we have seen we can separate only two components
at a time so to separate n components we will require n-1
distillation columns.
• Recall that separation via distillation requires that the
components being separated have relative volatilites, 𝛼𝛼 >
1.

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 Multicomponent Example
Component K-value

Methane 15.0
Ethane 3.8
Propane 1.55
n-Butane 0.8
n-Pentane 0.38
n-Hexane 0.19

Can I separate Propane, Ethane and Methan from n-Butane, n-Pentane and
n-Hexane?

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 Definitions – Key Components
• Light Key
– The most volatile component in the bottoms product
• Heavy Key
– The least volatile component in the top product
• In the example on the previous slide:
– Light key = Propane
– Heavy key = n-Butane
• All other components are called nonkeys.
– Light nonkeys = lighter than the key components (ie Methane and
Ethane)
– Heavy nonkeys = heavier than the key components (ie n-Pentane
and n-Hexane)

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 Key Components
• The key components will appear to a significant extent in
both the top and bottom products.
• The light nonkey components will end up almost
exclusively in the top product.
• The heavy nonkey components will end up almost
exclusively in the bottom product.

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 Multicomponent McCabe-Thiele
• Select the light and heavy keys based on the specific
problem.
• The process is exactly the same as binary distillation
except the two components that need to be separated are
the light and heavy key.

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 Summary
• MBEB4 Question 1 Solution
– Minimum Stages
– Minimum Reflux
– Optimum Feed location
• Multicomponent Distillation

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