Separation Processes

CH 362
Dr. Harshini Dasari
Temporary Faculty
Department of Chemical Engineering

Introduction to Separation Processes

In most of the chemical engineering systems, separation processes are integral part of
the entire process flowsheet.

If we consider a reactive system, where, certain products are of primary interest, sepa
ration units are either put in the upstream or downstream.

It may happen that the reactants are gaseous and should be devoid of moisture. In suc
h cases, a separation unit must be present as an upstream unit.

On the other hand, if a particular product is kept in mind, a separation unit must be pl
aced at the downstream of the flowsheet.

In food and juice processing industries, separations are primary stages of operation.

Most of the pharmaceutical industries have separation units as integral parts in the do
wnstream or they are the main units.

In milk processing separation processes are primary.

Introduction to Separation Processes

Introduction to Separation Processes

Examples of Separation processes:

1. Separation of blood.
2. Purification of drugs.
3. Purification of Au, Ag, Ti.

4. Refining of crude oil.

5. DNA testing.
6. Purification of organic material.
7. Purification of water.
8. Separation of water and waste product of metabolism from blood
Kidney

Introduction to Separation Processes

Definition of separation processes: those operations which

transform a mixture of substances into two or more produc
ts which differ from each other in composition

mixed

separated

Introduction to Separation Processes

A series of separators
are used as it is
impossible to produce
more than 2 products
with a single
separator

Recovery of light
hydrocarbons

Introduction to Separation Processes

HYPOTHETICAL!!!!!

Hydration of ethylene
to alcohol

C2H4+H2O C2H5OH
Due to the thermodynamic equilibrium limitations at 572K and 6.72 Mpa the conversion
of ethylene is only 5% through the reactor.
The unreacted ethylene is recycled back to the reactor and then complete conversion of et
hylene is achieved.
But ethylene is not pure in the feedstocks and also there are many side reactions . So the
process above is not simple.
SO!!!!

Introduction to Separation Processes

Introduction to Separation Processes

1. After the hydration reaction, partial condenser and high pressure water absorber helps
to recover unreacted ethylene.
2. The pressure of the liquid from the absorber is reduced which causes partial vaporizat
ion.
3. Vapor is then scrubbed with water in the absorber to prevent loss of alcohol from the
vent gas.
4. Crude(Conc C2H5OH+ Acetaldehyde+diethyl ether)is then catalytically hydrogenated
which converts aldehyde to ethanol.
5. Dithyl ether is removed by distillation in the light ends tower and scrubbed with wate
r.
6. Finally 93% pre C2H5OH is obtained.

Introduction to Separation Processes

Mechanism of Separation process

Separation of a mixture into its constituent chemical species requires energy.

A mixture( Soild, Liquid, Vapor) to be separated is in a single homogenous

phase, if it needs to be separated into immiscible phases, mechanical energy is
used(gravity, Centrifugal force, pressure reduction, electric /magnetic field

Introduction to Separation Processes

The Separation is accomplished by forcing different chemical species in the feed into
different locations by any of the 5 shown techniques.
a.

Separation by phase Creation

b.

Separation by phase Addition

c.

Separation by barrier

d.

Separation by Solid Agent

e.

Separation by Force Field

Introduction to Separation Processes

(a) It involves the creation of second phase that is immiscible with the feed phase. The
creation is done by energy transfer or by the pressure reduction.
(b) It creates second phase in the system in the form of a solvent that dissolves some o
f the species of the feed.
(c) This restricts/ enhances the movement of some of the feed species.
(d) It acts directly as the inert carriers for some of the substances in the feed.
(e) External field is applied for the separation of the feed particles.

For all these techniques separations are achieved by enhancing the diffusion of
certain species relative to the MT of all species by bulk movement within a
particular phase.
The rate of separation is governed b mass transfer, and the extent of separation is
limited bye thermodynamic equilibrium.

Separation by Phase Addition/Creation

Introduction to Separation Processes

The second phase is created by an energy separating agent(ESA) or/and by mass se

parating agent(MSA).
ESA involves heat transfer or transfer by shaft work.
MSA is partially or completely miscible with one or more particles of the feed.
Disadvantage of MSA are
Needs additional seperator to recover MSA
Possiblity of contaminating the product
Difficulty in design procedures

Separation by Phase Addition/Creation

Introduction to Separation Processes

1. When the feed mixture includes species that differ w
idely in their tendency to vaporize and condense. par
t of feed is removed by vaporization part by condens
ation(adding/removing heat).
2. By reducing the pressure of the feed by valve and th
en adding heat/vaporization.
3. If the volatility difference of the species in the feed i
s not large, distillation is done.(Mass transfer in deta
il)
4. When volatility difference is small in the species, the
n an MSA is added which is miscible with the liquid
in the column, acting as a solvent.
5. If condensation of vapor leaving the top of distillatio
n column is not easy by HT of water the liq MSA (ab
sorbent) is added.
6. If the feed is vapor and its species dissolve in the abs
orbent depending on their solubilities. It is absorptio
n-occurs at high pressure and ambient temperature.
7. Opposite to absorption. the feed is liquid. At high te
mperature and ambient pressure separation occurs by
contacting with a stripping agent.

Separation by Phase Addition/Creation

Introduction to Separation Processes

8. If the contacting trays are needed above the feed tray
for the separation -refluxed stripper.
9. If the bottom products of the stripper is reboiled wit
hout MSA-reboiled stripping.
10. When separation by distillation does not occur-the a
zeotrope is taken and condensed and separated into t
wo layers. The MSA is circulated to separate the lay
ers.
11. ,12. when mixture to be separated is temperature se
nsitive. When one solvent is used, it selectively diss
olves one fraction of component in the mixture. In a
two solvent extraction, if feed contains A and B solv
ent C dissolves A and solvent D dissolves B.
13. Removal of Liq from a Solid. The vapor pressure of
the liquid to be evaporated should be higher than its
partial pressure in the gas stream

Separation by Phase Addition/Creation

Introduction to Separation Processes

14. Transfer of volatile components of a liquid into a gas
by heat transfer. Major applications are humidificati
on, air-conditioning, cooling of water.
15. carried in organic and inorganic chemical plants. It i
s a purification step, in this case, the impurities shoul
d not precipitate with the product.
16. Sublimation-transfer of solid to gas without liq phas
e(high vaccum). Ex dry ice. Desublimation is revers
e process used in many industries.ex. Recovery of an
hydrides.
17. Leaching- a process in whch liquid slouble substanc
es are seperated from the solids.

Separation by Barrier

Introduction to Separation Processes

Barriers are normally microporous and nonporous membranes.

Membranes are fabricated from natural fibers, synthetic polymers, ceramics and ar
e liquid films.

Solid membranes are fabricated as flat sheets, tubes, hollow fibers, or spiral sheets
which are incorporated into modules.

Microporous membranes are effected by the rate of diffusion while non porous me
mbranes are effected by both difference in solubility in the membrane and rate of di
ffusion.

Separation by Barrier

1. Osmosis is the process where MT occurs due to diffe

rence in concentration gradient. It involves the transf
er by conc. gradient of a solvent from the mixture of
solute+ solvent. the membrane is nonpermeable to th
e solute.
2. Transfer of solvent in the opposite direction occurs
by imposing a pressure higher than the osmotic press
ure on the feed side. Eg: desalting of water.
3. The transfer by a conc. gradient of small solute mole
cules through a porous membrane.
4. Separation of small solute/solvent particles through
a microporous membranes and preventing large mol
ecules to pass by.(molecules in the range of 0.02-10
m).
5. similar to 4 but molecules are in the range of 1-20
m. To retain the molecules upto 0.1nm the process is
termed as hyper filtration.
6. The process in which the particles absorbed and tran
sported from a nonporous membrane are evaporated
and used. this requires much low pressures than the
processes above.
7. The separation of gas mixtures by selective gas perm
eation by applying pressure.
8. Membranes of few molecules in thickness (surfactan
t based) located at the interface of 2 fluid phases.Eg:
aromatics are separated from paraffins.

Introduction to Separation Processes

Separation by Solid Agent

These are mostly solid mass separating agents.

The solid mostly in the form of granular material
or as a packing acts as an absorbent

1. Adsorption is a surface operation. It is used to remov

e components in low Conc. present in non absorbing
solvents on to a solid agents.
. The desorption is later performed for the regeneratio
n of adsorbents.
. Activated carbon, silica gel,Al2O3 and Zeolites are s
ome of the examples.

Separation by Solid Agent

Introduction to Separation Processes

2. Chromatography- A method for separating the comp

onents of a feed gas or a liquid mixture by passing th
rough a bed of packing.
. The feed may be volatized into a carrier gas, and the
bed is a solid adsorbent.
. Because of selective adsorption/absorption of the fee
d mixture on the solid adsorbent/ a liquid absorbent r
espectively, followed by the desorption, different co
mponents move through the bed at different rates. T
hus they get separated.
3. Ion Exchange- Similar to adsorption ,but here a che
mical reaction is involved. Eg: in water softening, an
organic or inorganic polymer in its Na form are exch
anged with Ca in water. After the spent polymer gets
saturated with Ca it is regenerated by contacting wit
h salt.

Introduction to Separation Processes

Separation by Solid Agent

1. Centrifugation
2. Thermal Diffusion
3. Electrolysis
4. Electrodialysis
5. Electrophoresis
6. Field-flow Fractionation

6. The mixture to be separated is forced

under electric and magnetic fields in
the direction perpendicular to the
laminar flow field. Components are
separated by the driven forces and are
carried in the flow direction with
different velocities for the separation to
occur.

As each molecules and ions have different degrees

of response for the forces and gradients of electric
field, these technique is used.

1. Centrifugation- It establishes a pressure field that se

parates fluid mixtures according to molecular weigh
t. This is used to separated 235UF6 with 238UF6.
2. Thermal Diffusion-a large temperature gradient is in
duced in a homogenous solution, establishing a conc
. gradient leading to the separation of U isotopes.
3. Electrolysis-The process of using electric current for
the separation process. Eg: natural water contains fra
ction of deuterium. Applying electrolysis, movement
of H to cathode and O to anode, leads to the producti
on of D2O.
4. In Electrodialysis, cation and anion permeable mem
branes carry a fixed charge preventing the migration
of species of like charge. Eg: desalinization of sea w
ater.
5. Migration of charged colloidal or suspended particle
s in electric field. +vely charged dyes, sols, colloids
move to cathode while small suspended vely charg
ed particles move to anode. Eg: Separation of bioche
micals.