Mass Transfer-I

Distillation
Lecture 4
Dr. Hemant Kumar
Department of Chemical
Engineering
DDU Nadiad
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 Insoluble liquids: steam distillation

• The mutual solubility of some liquids is so small that they can be

considered substantially insoluble
• Example: hydrocarbons and water
• If liquids are completely insoluble, the Vapor pressure of either
component cannot be influenced by pressure of other and each
exerts its true vapor pressure at the prevailing temperature
• When sum of the vapor pressure of the individual components
equals the total pressure, the mixture boils and the vapor
composition is reality computed

• So as long as two liquid phases are present, the mixture will boil at
the same temperature and produce a vapor of constant composition

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 Insoluble liquids: steam distillation
Exampl
e

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 Insoluble liquids: steam distillation

• by this method of distilation with steam so long as liquid water is

present, the high boiling organic liquid can be made to vaporize at a
temperature much lower than its n-boiling point without necessity of
a vacuum pump
• If boiled at 204 oC, this compound will undergo considerable
decomposing
Limitations:
• Heat requirements for steam distillation process are great. Since
large amount of water is required to be evaporated

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SINGLE-STAGE OPERATION-FLASH VAPORIZATION
• Flash vaporization, or equilibrium distillation as it is
sometimes called, is a single-stage operation wherein
a liquid mixture is partially vaporized, the vapor allowed
to come to equilibrium with the residual liquid, and the
resulting vapor and liquid phases are separated and
removed from the apparatus.
• It may be batchwise or continuous
• As shown In the fig, the liquid feed is heated in a
conventional tubular heat exchanger
• The pressure is then reduced, vapor forms at the
expense of the liquid adiabatically, and the mixture is
introduced into a vapor-liquid separating vessel.
SINGLE-STAGE OPERATION-FLASH VAPORIZATION
SINGLE-STAGE OPERATION-FLASH VAPORIZATION
• The separator shown is of the cyclone type, where the
feed is introduced tangentially into a covered annular
space.
• The liquid portion of the mixture is thrown by centrifugal
force to the outer wall and leaves at the bottom, while
the vapor rises through the central chimney and leaves
at the top.
• The vapor may then pass to a condenser, not shown in
the figure.
• Flash vaporization of a volatile component from a
relatively non volatile component is carried out under
reduced pressure. (or valid for separations of
components having large differences in their boiling
points)
• The product, D mol/time, richer in the more volatile
substance, is in this case entirely a vapor.
 SINGLE-STAGE OPERATION-FLASH VAPORIZATION
• The material and enthalpy balances are:
(1)
(2)

(3)

(4)

Note: eqn (4) can be obtained by solving eqn (1) and (2) for
mole fraction ratio part and by solving eqn (1) and (3) for
energy balance part
 SINGLE-STAGE OPERATION-FLASH VAPORIZATION
F=D+W (1)
FzF=DyD+WxW
(2)
From eq 1 and 2:
(D+W) zF= DyD + WxW
D (zF-yD) = W (xW- zF)

FHF+Q=DHD+WHW (3)
solving eqn (1) and (3) for energy balance part

(4)
SINGLE-STAGE OPERATION-FLASH VAPORIZATION
• If the effluent streams were in equilibrium, the device
would be an equilibrium stage and the products would
be on a tie line.
• For example for more volatile component yD and xw
mole fractions are in equilibrium.
• Compositions yD and xw represents the top and bottom
mole fraction of the streams leaving the flash vaporizer.
SINGLE-STAGE OPERATION-FLASH VAPORIZATION
SINGLE-STAGE OPERATION-FLASH VAPORIZATION
SINGLE-STAGE OPERATION-FLASH VAPORIZATION
Different method:
FzF=DyD+WxW

divide eqn by F, to get

zF=(D/F)yD+(W/F)xW

Let (D/F) =f ; fraction of liquid vaporized

or (W/F) =1-f, so that
zF=f yD+(1-f) xW
or
yD=[- (1-f)/f] xW+ zF/f

This is the eqn of straight line of slope - (1-f)/f and can

be plotted on distribution curve.
SINGLE-STAGE OPERATION-FLASH VAPORIZATION
Problem: A feed of 50 mole % hexane and 50 mole %
octane is fed into a pipe still through a
pressure-reducing valve and then in to a flash
disengaging chamber. The vapor and liquid leaving the
chamber are assumed to be in equilibrium. if the
fraction of feed converts to the vapor is 0.5, find the
composition oos of the top and bottom products.

Equilibrium data:

X 1.0 0.690 0.192 0.0450 0

Y 1.0 0.932 0.538 0.1775 0
SINGLE-STAGE OPERATION-FLASH VAPORIZATION
• Successive flash vaporizations can be made on the
residual liquids in a series of single-stage operations,
whereupon the separation will be better than that
obtained if the same amount of vapor were formed in a
single operation.

• As the amount of vapor formed in each stage becomes

smaller and the total number of vaporizations larger, the
operation approaches differential distillation in the
limit.
 DIFFERENTIAL, OR SIMPLE, DISTILLATION

• If during an infinite number of successive flash

vaporizations of a liquid only an infinitesimal portion
of the liquid were flashed each time, the net result
would be equivalent to a differential, or simple,
distillation
• In practice this can only be approximated. A batch of
liquid is charged to a kettle or still fitted with some sort of
heating device such as a steam jacket, as in Fig.
• The charge is boiled slowly, and the vapors are
withdrawn as rapidly as they form to a condenser, where
they are liquefied and the condensate (distillate) is
collected in the receiver
• The apparatus is essentially a large-scale replica of
the ordinary laboratory distillation flask and
condenser
DIFFERENTIAL, OR SIMPLE, DISTILLATION
 DIFFERENTIAL, OR SIMPLE, DISTILLATION

• The first portion of the distillate will be the richest in the

more volatile substance, and as distillation proceeds.
the vaporized product becomes leaner
• The distillate can therefore be collected in several
separate batches called cuts, to give a series of distilled
products of various purities
• Thus, for example, if a ternary mixture contained a
small amount of a very volatile substance A, a majority
of substance B of intermediate volatility, and a small
amount of C of low volatility, the first cut, which would
be small, would contain the majority of A
• A large second cut would contain the majority of B
reasonably pure but nevertheless contaminated with A
and C
 DIFFERENTIAL, OR SIMPLE, DISTILLATION

• and the residue left in the kettle would be largely C.

• While all three cuts would contain all three substances,
nevertheless some separation would have been
obtained.
• For such an operation to approach even
approximately the theoretical characteristics of a
differential distillation, it would have to proceed
infinitely slowly so that the vapor issuing from the liquid
would at all times be in equilibrium with the liquid
Binary Mixtures:
• The vapor issuing from a true differential distillation
is at any time in equilibrium with the liquid from which
it rises but changes continuously in composition.
 DIFFERENTIAL, OR SIMPLE, DISTILLATION

• The mathematical approach must therefore be

differential
• Assume that at any time during the course of the
distillation there are L mol of liquid in the still of
composition x mole fraction A and that an amount dD mol
of distillate is vaporized, of mole fraction y* in equilibrium
with the liquid
• Then we have the following material balances:
DIFFERENTIAL, OR SIMPLE, DISTILLATION
 DIFFERENTIAL, OR SIMPLE, DISTILLATION

• where F is the moles of charge of composition xF and W

the moles of residual liquid of composition Xw
• This is known as the Rayleigh equation
• It can be used to determine F, W, XF or Xw when three
of these are known
• The composited distillate composition YD,avg can be
determined by a simple material balance
 DIFFERENTIAL, OR SIMPLE, DISTILLATION

Differential Condensation:
• This is a similar operation where a vapor feed is slowly
condensed under equilibrium conditions and the condensate
withdrawn as rapidly as it forms

• where F is the moles of feed vapor of composition YF and D

the vaporous residue of composition YD
 DIFFERENTIAL, OR SIMPLE, DISTILLATION

Constant Relative Volatility

• If the term y* is replaced by y*=αx/[1+(α-1)x] over
concentration range in the Rayleigh eqn, and graphically
integrate the eqn we get

This can be rearranged to another useful form

Simpsons ⅓ rd rule

∫ab f(x) dx = h/3 [(y0 + yn) + 4(y1 + y3 + y5 + …. + yn-1) +

2(y2 + y4 + y6 + ….. + yn-2)]

● where a and b are lower and upper limits

● divide range into equal parts
THANKS