Computer Applications in Chemical Engineering

Priv.-Doz. Dr. Roland Dittmeyer Karl-Winnacker-Institut der DECHEMA e.V., Frankfurt am Main Summer 2003

Exercise 2.1. For an equimolar solution of n-pentane and n-hexane compute: a. The dew-point pressure at 120F To solve this problem with AspenPlus, the Pxy-Diagramm is calculated. General suggestions: - Create a flowsheet simulation - Select general with English units - Define n-pentane and n-hexane as components - Select NRTL as property method (base method) Open Tools/Analysis/Property/Binary and select the Pxy-diagram as Analysis type. Fill in the demanded temperature (120F) and start the calculation by pressing GO.
1.8 P-xy for N-PENTAN/N-HEXAN P-x 120.0 F P-y 120.0 F

0.6 0

0.7

0.8

0.9

Pressure atm 1.1 1.2

1.3

1.4

1.5

1.6

1.7

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4 0.5 0.6 Liquid/Vapor Molefrac N-PENTAN

0.7

0.8

0.9

Fig. 1: Pxy diagramm for a mixture of n-pentane and n-hexane

From the Diagramm we can read the dew-point pressure. At the given composition of 0.5 the dew-point-Line (green Line) shows us a dew-point pressure of around 0.75 atm.

b. The bubble-point temperature at 1 atm To solve this problem with AspenPlus, the Txy-Diagram is calculated. All we have to do is select the Txy-Diagramm in the Binary Analysis window as analysis type, and specify the pressure (1atm). Running the analysis by pressing GO leads to the following diagram.
160 T-xy for N-PENTAN/N-HEXAN 1.0 atm 150 1.0 atm

90 0

100

110

Temperature F 120

130

140

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4 0.5 0.6 Liquid/Vapor Molefrac N-PENTAN

0.7

0.8

0.9

Fig. 2: Txy diagramm for a mixture of n-pentane and n-hexane

The bubble-point temperature at 1atm for an equimolar solution of n-pentane and n-hexane is 120F. c. The vapour fraction, at 120F and 0.9 atm, and the mole fractions of the vapour liquid phases To solve this problem with AspenPlus, the phase equilibrium at given conditions is calculated. General suggestions: Introduce and connect the components of the flowsheet (Fig. 3): - the feed stream - a flash (Flash2) with two outlet streams - the outlet streams top and bottom

TOP

FLASH FEED

BOTTOM

Fig. 3: Flowsheet for the calculation of the phase equilibrium

Specific suggestions: Feed: specify a flow rate and suitable conditions for the n-pentane/n-hexane mixture (e.g. total flow 100lbmol/hr, Mole-Frac 0.5 for n-pentane and n-hexane, 120F, 1 atm) Flash: Fill in the temperature (120F) and the pressure (0.9atm) With these settings the calculations can be done. The Stream results are:
FEED Temperature F Pressure psi Vapor Frac Mole Flow lbmol/hr Mass Flow lb/hr Volume Flow cuft/hr Enthalpy MMBtu/hr Mole Flow lbmol/hr N-PENTAN N-HEXANE Mole Frac N-PENTAN N-HEXANE 120 14,7 0 100 7916,372 204,028 -7,793 50 50 0,5 0,5 TOP 120 13,23 1 37,372 2873,377 17577,007 -2,417 24,756 12,616 0,662 0,338 BOTTOM 120 13,23 0 62,628 5042,995 128,953 -4,945 25,244 37,384 0,403 0,597

Fig. 4: Result summary

The vapor fraction in the Flash is: 0.37372.