CHAPTER 1 Phase Equilibrium Problem

Iran University of Science and Technology

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 Introduction
A world of mixtures:
❑ The air we breathe,
❑ the food we eat,
❑ the gasoline in our automobiles.

In each of these there is a transfer of a substance from one phase to another, because when two phases are
brought into contact, they tend to exchange their constituents until the composition of each phase
attains a constant value; we say that the phases are in equilibrium.

The equilibria compositions of two phases are often very different from one another, and it is precisely this
difference that enables us to separate mixtures by distillation, leaching, adsorption, extraction, and other phase-
contacting operations in chemical industry.
In equilibrium, phase compositions depend on several variables, such as temperature and pressure, and on the
chemical nature and concentrations of the substances in the mixture.

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 Introduction
 Stages I AND III require separation operations
 Typically, 40-80% of investment for separation operation equipment.
 Reactor is the heart of a chemical plant, phase I is like mouth and Phase III is like the digestive system

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 Essence of the Problem

 to relate quantitatively the intensive variables that describe the

state of equilibrium of two or more homogeneous phases that
are free to interchange energy and matter.

 The number of intensive properties that must be specified to

fix unambiguously the state of equilibrium is given by the
Gibbs phase rule. In the absence of chemical reactions, the
phase rule is:

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 Application of Thermodynamics to Phase-Equilibrium
Problems
Thermodynamics provides the mathematical language that
enables us to obtain an abstract solution of the phase-
equilibrium problem:
 The real problem is translated into an abstract, mathematical
problem. the chemical potential - made it possible to achieve
the goal of step II

 A solution is found to the mathematical problem. at

equilibrium, the chemical potential of each component must
be the same in every phase

 The mathematical solution is translated back into physically

meaningful terms.