Aspen Plus Distillation,

Absorption and Stripping

Modern Chemical Process Technologies

Presenter: Wahab Maqbool

PhD, Queensland University of Technology Australia

Wahab Maqbool, Postdoc – Green Biorefining Technologies – Department of Engineering 1

Objectives
• Distillation and absorption processes
• How to design and model separation columns in Aspen Plus?

Design parameters
Results analysis
Though the emphasis is on distillation processes, the basic
construction features, and many of the design methods, also apply
to other multistage processes, such as:
Stripping
absorption, and
extraction

Wahab Maqbool, Postdoc – Green Biorefining Technologies – Department of Engineering 2

Distillation
• Distillation is commonly used separation method in chemical processing and
• models of these are the heart of Aspen Plus
• In Aspen Plus, all distillation models can be found in ‘Simulation’
environment under the ‘Columns’ tab.

• In Aspen Plus, many trial and error rating solutions are required to reach a
specific design.

Wahab Maqbool, Postdoc – Green Biorefining Technologies – Department of Engineering 3

 Distillation column nomenclature
Condenser
Vapor
Reflux drum (receiver)
Distillate, D
(External) reflux
• Feed is separated into distillate enriched in light
Feed, F components (high volatility) and bottoms enriched in
heavy components (low volatility)
• Vapor is generated in re-boiler and passes up through
Trays many trays to overhead condenser
• Liquid reflux flows down over trays, giving counter-current
contacting
Reboiler
• Recovery: The fraction of a component in the feed that is
recovered in either the distillate or bottoms
Bottoms, B • Purity: The fraction of a component in either the distillate
or the bottoms

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Distillation column nomenclature
• Reflux Ratio
 The number of stages required for a given separation will depend on
the reflux ratio used
 In a real case, the effective reflux ratio will be increased by vapor
condensed within the column due to heat leakage through the walls
 No allowance is normally made for this increased flow in design
calculations
 If a column is poorly insulated, changes in the internal reflux due to
sudden changes in the external conditions, such as a sudden rain
storm, can have a noticeable effect on the column operation and
control

 What is a minimum reflux ratio???

Theoretically infinite no. of stages will be required
for a specified separation

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Distillation column nomenclature
• Optimum reflux ratio
‘located somewhere between minimum reflux ratio and total reflux’

• How to decide for the optimum reflux ratio?

When increasing reflux ratio Optimum reflux ratio

Stages & capital cost
Utility cost
(cooling water, steam)
 lowest total annualized cost or greatest
net present value
 Low capital cost + utility cost
 Generally, 1.1 - 1.3 times the minimum
reflux ratio

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Distillation column nomenclature
• Feed-point location
 Feed should enter the column at the point that gives the best
match between the feed composition and corresponding
column stage composition

 What will happen by changing feed-point location?

‘It will affect the number of stages required for a specified separation’

 In practice, two or three feed-point nozzles are provided near

the predicted locations to allow for:
 Uncertainties in design calculation and data, and
 Possible changes in feed composition after start-up

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Distillation column nomenclature
• Column pressure
 Dew point of distillate > Condenser cooling media
temperature

 Minimum temperature of cooling water ≈ 40 oC

 Vacuum distillation is used to reduce the column

temperatures for the distillation of heat-sensitive
materials

 In vacuum columns, the column pressure drop will be a

significant fraction of the total pressure and the change
in pressure up the column should be allowed for

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Distillation column nomenclature
• Stage, condenser and reboiler temperatures
Dew point and bubble point calculations are performed

Bubble point Dew point

Any rise in temperature will cause a bubble Any drop in temperature will cause a drop
of vapor to form in a saturated liquid of liquid to form in a saturated vapor

Vapor-liquid equilibrium of the system can perform these calculations

Wahab Maqbool, Postdoc – Green Biorefining Technologies – Department of Engineering 9

Distillation column nomenclature
Number of columns
In multicomponent distillation the production of a pure
product usually requires at least two distillation columns

For a mixture of ‘N’ components, if all components are to be

separated then ‘N-1’ columns are required

Distillation sequence

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Column sizing
• Performed after calculating number of real stages
 Height of column will depend on plate spacing
 Commonly used plate spacing are 6-36 inches
 A larger spacing will be needed between certain plates to accommodate
• Feed stream
• Side-stream arrangements, and
• For manways

• Column Diameter
 Depends on vapor velocity
 Vapor velocity should be below that which would cause
• Excessive liquid entrainment or
• High pressure drop
 Calculated from Souders and Brown equation, Lowenstein (1961)

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Costing of separation columns
• Separation columns must be designed and costed using the methods used in
pressure vessel designing and costing

• The maximum design temperature and pressure for the column will usually be
calculated from the conditions at the reboiler with a suitable additional margin

• If the column operates below ambient temperature then the minimum

temperature will be calculated from the condenser temperature with a suitable
design margin.

• Column internals such as plates or packing are costed separately and added to the
vessel cost

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Mass transfer description in distillation
• Two basic approaches to the description of mass transfer are used:

Rate equation of mass transfer

Concept of theoretical (equilibrium) stages

• In later approach, resistance against mass transfer between the phases is

neglected. This approach considers theoretical mixing concept for a stage

• In this course, predominantly the equilibrium stage concept is applied

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Single-step phase separation
• Single-step VLE

 Mass balance

 VLE

 Enthalpy balance

• The equilibrium constant is calculated by the chosen thermodynamic model

• Different combinations of T, P, nV/nF and Q can be used to specify the process

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Multi-step phase separation
• Solved by rigorous method
• Solves a system of nonlinear algebraic equations
Also known as MESH equations, consisting of:
Material balance
Phase equilibrium
Energy balance and
Summation equations

• Calculates with equilibrium stage concept

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What happens on a single stage?
• Liquid comes down a downcomer from
tray above and is distributed across the
active area of the tray

• Vapor bubbles up through holes creating a

froth on the tray

• Froth or liquid overflows into next

downcomer

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Stage and column efficiency
• Real trays do not usually achieve theoretical stage performance
• As a rough guide a figure of 70% can be assumed for preliminary
designs

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Equipment for vapor-liquid separations
• Distillation, absorption, stripping etc.

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Parameter feasible ranges
• Change in process parameters is needed to reach a specific
separation performance in a column
• The most independent variables considered are:
Reflux ratio
Product rate

• A feasible area on a plane can be defined by the two variables

• The larger the area, the more independent the variables

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Parameter feasible ranges
• Between distillate rate and reflux ratio
• These two variables may be varied quite
independently

• Outside of the feasible range, the vapor or

liquid phase may dry up on a certain
column tray

• For example, at low distillate rates, a

minimum reflux ratio is required to keep
the vapor from drying up

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Side heaters/coolers and pump-arounds
• Generally heat transfer occurs in reboiler and condenser
• Heat can also be added at intermediate trays
• In multi-product columns, intermediate condensers are associated
with some of the side products
• Absorber intercoolers are used for partial removal of the heat of
absorption
• Pumping-around is the commonly used method for heat exchange
between a column tray and a heat source or sink
 A fluid is drawn from the tray
 sent to a heat exchanger, and then
 pumped back to the column

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Obsolete and Modern Methods for Solution of a Distillation Problem

• Earlier methods developed for simple binary distillation are no

more used in modern distillation problem solutions
 Lewis-Sorel Method
 McCabe-Thiele Method

• Industrial distillation involve multicomponent system

• Modern computer-based solutions are sought for such complex
distillation problems
 Shortcut method
 Rigorous method

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Shortcut Distillation Method
• Shortcut distillation method the so-called the Fenske–Underwood–Gilliland
method
• Shortcut distillation method provides only proximate results
• Aspen Plus unit operation to be used: ‘DSTWU’

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Shortcut Distillation Method
• Input specification

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Rigorous Distillation Method
• Shortcut distillation method provides only proximate results
• Aspen Plus unit operation to be used: ‘RadFrac’
• RadFrac performs a detailed and sound solution of distillation problem

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Rigorous Distillation Method
• Input Specification

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Rigorous Distillation Method
• Input Specification

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Rigorous Distillation Method
• Input Specification

Wahab Maqbool, Postdoc – Green Biorefining Technologies – Department of Engineering 28

Rigorous Distillation Method
• Input Specification

Wahab Maqbool, Postdoc – Green Biorefining Technologies – Department of Engineering 29

Rigorous Distillation Method
• Design Specification

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Rigorous Distillation Method
• Vary

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Absorption and Stripping
• Absorption and stripping are counterpart processes used in the
process industries
• In absorption, a gas mixture is contacted with a suitable liquid
solvent to remove preferentially one or more mixture components
from the gas phase
• Conversely, in stripping, a liquid mixture is contacted by a suitable
stripping gas to remove preferentially one or more components
from the liquid phase
• Both process involve gas-liquid contact
• Carried out generally in vertical, cylindrical towers (similar to
distillation columns) called absorbers or strippers
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Absorption and Stripping
• Typical flow diagram for a coupled absorption-stripping unit

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Absorption and Stripping
• Some commercial absorption processes

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Absorption and Stripping
• An absorption example from industry
• The purpose of absorber is to recover
the acetone from feed gas
• Water is used as absorbent

• Question: Is water absorbed or

stripped in this operation?

• Answer: Stripped, because more water

appears in ‘Exit gas’ than in ‘Feed gas’

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Absorption and Stripping
• Solvent selection for absorption
Solubility is an important criterion for solvent selection

Some other criteria include:

Ease of stripping
Availability and cost
Volatility (higher volatility can contaminate the absorber exit gas)
Stability, especially for recirculating systems
Corrosiveness

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Aspen Plus Absorption and Desorption
• In Aspen Plus, the RadFrac model is used to model absorbers and
strippers

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Aspen Plus Absorber
• No Reboiler and No Condenser are selected for absorbers
• Gas feed is connected to the bottom and liquid solvent to the top of the
absorber column
• Feed streams are specified, and no more specifications can be added for
absorber

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Aspen Plus Absorber
• Condenser pressure and column pressure drop (optional) are need to be
specified.
• All Done!

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Aspen Plus Desorber
• Stripper is a column but only with reboiler
• Liquid feed is connected to the top of the stripper column
• Another operating specification like ‘Distillate rate’ is needed

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Efficiency and column internals

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Costing of separation columns
• Preliminary costing of separation columns, when access to reliable cost data or
estimating software is lacking, can be performed with cost correlations.

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Costing of separation columns

• The RadFrac unit operation model of

Aspen Plus includes:
• Main tower
• Condenser
• Reboiler
• Accumulator
• Reflux pump, and
• Splits

• These components can be mapped in

Aspen Plus during economic evaluation
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– Department of Engineering
Costing of separation columns
• Mapping of separation column during economic evaluation

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