Textbooks Chemical Engineering Separations 5

Lecture 1 column profiles for ideal mixtures in simple columns John Christy Douglas - Conceptual Design of Chemical Processes (especially chapter 7) King - Separation Processes Rose - Distillation Design in Practice Doherty - Conceptual design of Distillation Systems Biegler - Systematic Methods of Chemical Process Design

Column Profiles: binary, ideal

1.0 A xA B A Tray number B 1 Feed S C

McCabe-Thiele Diagrams
1.0 A yA B Upper op line A 0 Feed xA 1.0

Good profile:
zones A - rapid separation between feed and ends zone B - slower, but still reasonable, separation near feed

Good column

Column Profiles: binary, ideal

1.0 xA

McCabe-Thiele Diagrams
1.0

yA

Tray number B 1 Feed S C 0 Feed xA 1.0

Feed pinch, reflux too low

Feed pinch: reflux too low

Column Profiles: binary, ideal

1.0 xA

McCabe-Thiele Diagrams
1.0

yA

Tray number B 1 Feed S C 0 Feed xA 1.0

Insufficient plates: good separation not achieved

Not enough plates

Column Profiles: binary, ideal

1.0 xA

McCabe-Thiele Diagrams
1.0

yA

Tray number B 1 Feed S C 0 Feed xA 1.0

No effect of feed: reflux too high

Reflux too high op line slope 1

Column Profiles: binary, ideal

1.0 xA

McCabe-Thiele Diagrams
1.0

yA

Tray number B 1 Feed S C 0 Feed xA 1.0

Feed too low: upper feed pinch

Feed too low: i.e. inserted below optimum stage

Column Profiles: binary, ideal

1.0 xA

Component distribution: multicomponent, ideal

Tray number B 1 Feed S C

Out of mass balance: distillate flow too high

multicomponent, ideal

Non-key plateaux
Heavy non-keys (HNKs)
From feed to bottoms in liquid also a little in vapour, especially near base of column (T highest) assume y 0 up the column towards feed then Lxn+1 = Vyn + BxB so x = BxB n+1 L if yn = 0. But xn+1 not less than BxB L

Key peaks: (A) mass balance effect caused by NK buildup, (B) HNK plateau (in x), (C) LNK has plateau in y, not x, (D) rapid NK disappearance beyond feed.

Non-key plateaux
Light non-keys (LNKs)
From feed to tops in vapour also a little in liquid, especially near top of column (T lowest) assume x 0 down the column towards feed then Vyn1 = Lxn + DxD so y = DxD n 1 V if xn = 0. But yn1 not less than DxD V

Temperature control
Temp profile follows composition profile Try to control temperatures in the steepest part of the profile