CME 8022 Assignment - Ethane-Propane Separation

Submission Date: Friday 14th May 2010

Submit to the MAST General Office

A process to separate ethane and propane using distillation is shown in Figure 1. In this process a feed
containing ethane and propane is compressed from 101.3 kPa to 850 kPa (compressor isentropic efficiency =
85%). The compressed feed is then cooled in three stages, firstly using the ethane and propane product
streams, secondly using a refrigerated precooler and finally by passing it through the reboiler of the distillation
column. The compressed cooled feed is then let down through a valve to a pressure of 101.3 kPa.

After the valve the vapour and liquid phases are in equilibrium. They are separated and the liquid is fed to the
top plate of the distillation column. The vapour from the separator and the vapour from the top of the column
are combined to form the ethane product stream. The propane product stream is taken from the reboiler. The
two product streams are heated using energy from Precooler 1. Each product stream receives half of the heat
load of Precooler 1.

1.
Using the data provided and assuming that the liquid phase is incompressible and that the gas/vapour phase is
an ideal gas:

(1) Find the mass flow rates, compositions, pressures and temperatures of all the process streams in Figure 1.

(2) Calculate the work required to compress the feed.

(3) Calculate the number of stages required in the column.

2.
Model the process using HYSYS process simulation software and compare the simulation results with those
from part 1.
 Stream 7

Stream 1 Stream 2
Stream 9

Stream 8
Stream 11

Stream 2 Stream 6

Stream 13

Stream 12
Stream 10
Stream 3
Stream 5

Stream 4
 240

230

220
Temperature (K)

210

200

190

180
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0
mass fraction ethane
 320

310

300

290

280
Temperature (K)

270

260

250

240

230

220

210

200
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0
Mass Fraction Ethane
 1.0

0.9

0.8
mole fraction ethane in vapour

0.7

0.6

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

0.0
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0
mole fraction ethane in liquid
 Z T
∆ 687003(1- TR ) TR = Z = 0.60646 - 0.55492TR + 0.32799TR2
305.4
È 2598.7 ˘
P sat = expÍ51.857 - - 5.1283ln T +1.4913¥10 -5 T 2 ˙
Î T ˚
† †
†

Z T
∆ 662426(1- TR ) TR = Z = 0.78237 - 0.77319TR + 0.39246TR2
369.8
È 3492.6 ˘
P sat = expÍ59.078 - - 6.0669 lnT +1.0919 ¥10-5 T 2 ˙
Î T ˚
† †
†

† ∆