Assignment – Due Sunday, November 22nd

• Your boss has decided to move ahead with the project

that you just provided to him.
• You now know the reactants, the products, the separation
methods, the incoming composition rates, and the
industrially required purity rates.

• Project 2 will be answering the question:

• Is this a sound investment?

Known
• The feed composition to the separators
• Determined from the reactions specified in Project 1
• The feed flow rates to the separators
• Determined in Project 2 (from information in Project 1)
• The products coming out
• Determined from the overall separations specified in Project 1
• The required purity and flow rates out of the separators
• Determined in Project 1
• Choose one MAIN industry to focus on
• You are not designing a column for every industry you examined, just for
one.
• The cost of your reactants and products
• Determined in Project 2
To Determine
• The design of four separation units to separate the final product(s)
to sell.
• Number of stages, height, diameter, packing if needed, etc. (all material
covered in class for your equipment type)
• You are responsible for completely sizing and designing your separations
equipment

• Appropriate material for your separation units

• Packing material if needed, outer cladding, inner material, etc. (design it as if
you were planning to build it)

• Economics of your plant

• Only based on the equipment sized
• Determine if this is a good investment for your company
• Will need to determine the price you can sell your final product for
• Should consider how the other equipment could affect the investment
To Determine - ChemCAD
• Using the information from Project 2 in Class
• So yes, you will be in the same groups for this project in Recitation (sorry)
• Compounds, flow rates, purity levels to achieve, etc.
• “Build” the appropriate column in ChemCAD

• For Distillation
• Determine stages, feed stages, reflux ratio, etc. using Shortcut Column
• Switch to SCDS, make sure it runs as anticipated (exiting flow rates, purity
levels, etc.), then size (diameter, flooding, pressure drop)
• For absorption
• Determine stages algebraically, if possible
• Using SCDS and the stages determined algebraically, make sure it runs as
anticipated (exiting flow rates, purity levels, etc.), then size (diameter,
flooding, pressure drop)
Group Meetings with Me
• Between November 2nd and November 13th, every group
needs to send at least one group member to meet with
me
• For those groups with more than four separation units, units will be
assigned with necessary assumptions to be made
• If, for example, a unit is skipped, what are the assumed flow rates out of
that piece of equipment
• For those groups with four separation units, ensures that all four
separation units can be accurately determined with material from
this class
• If a piece of equipment has not yet been covered (or may not be
covered), what will be assumed for calculations to be carried out

• I have flowcharts that can be used to select the unit operations.

To Turn in on December 2nd
• A written document
• Page length does not matter (but remember, I have to grade it in
roughly a week!)
• Must have
• A description of the flows into and out of the separation units
• A description of the four pieces of equipment you are sizing
• Parameters, material used, any internals, cost of the piece of equipment
• Differences between Hand Calculations and ChemCAD Calculations
• A description of the economics
• Sale price, total cost of separations (without other necessary equipment),
return on investment
• Your group’s recommendation
• Do you recommend building this plant?
• Why or why not?
• Will also include 4 appendices
To Turn in on December 2nd
• Appendices
• A – Flow diagram with streams labeled
• All streams – streams into and out of each separation, including flow
and composition of total and each individual component.
• B – Separations Calculations
• All separation calculations performed. You can use Excel, but you must
provide me with a sheet documenting all formulas used and what the
formulas were used for (this can be handwritten if you want)
• C – Economic Calculations
• All economic calculations performed. You can use Excel, but you must
provide me with a sheet documenting all formulas used and what the
formulas were used for (this can be handwritten if you want)
• D – ChemCAD Information
• Individual Flow Sheets, Entering and Exiting Stream Information,
Thermodynamics Model, Specifications Screen(s), Sizing Information
To Present on December 2nd or December 4th
• Presentation will be 8-9 minutes with 3-4 minutes for questions
• Should address
• The design of each piece of equipment
• Flows and compositions into and out of each piece of equipment
• Parameters (height, diameter, packing, stages, etc.)
• You do not have to describe how it was sized, just present the sizes
• Material
• Cost
• A compare and contrast between hand calculations and ChemCAD
• The overall cost of your separation units
• Do not worry about adding in the cost of any heat exchangers or necessary
equipment outside of the separation units
• The economics of your separation
• Price you can sell your material for
• Expected Return on Investment
• Recommendation – Do you build or not? Why or why not?
Items that may be of assistance

• Materials Table
• Based on the solution (left column), and the temperature (top
lines), the materials that are good for construction of units (above
temperature)
• Heuristics
• Guidelines for designing towers, tray towers, packed towers, and
liquid-liquid extraction
• Sequencing
• Guidelines for arranging the sequence of your separations units
• The flowsheet you have from your research may be correct
• Double check by following the guidelines to ensure it is
• If it not correct, do not hesitate to rearrange it!