ASSIGNMENT II (Due Date 19th April 2017)

1. When 9 g of urea (CH4N2O2) are added to 1 kg of acetone at 1 bar, the boiling point
of acetone raises 0.24 K. The normal boiling point of acetone is 329.2 K. From this
data, estimate acetones enthalpy of vaporization. (5)

2. Ethanol (1) and n-hexane (2) are in equilibrium at 75C. There are two liquid phases
and one vapor phase present (VLLE). The compositions of the liquid phases are: (x1)a=
0.9098 and (x1)b= 0.0902. The saturation pressures at 75C are: (P1)sat=0.888 bar and
(P2)sat = 1.223 bar
(10)
(a) Is the two-sufx Margules expression gE =Ax1x2 a reasonable model for this
system? Explain.
(b) Calculate the constant, A.
(c) What is the total pressure of the system? State and justify any assumptions that you
make.
(d) What is the composition of the vapor phase?

3. p-xylene needs to be separated from its isomers, ortho-xylene and meta-xylene. All the
isomers have similar physical properties. The latent heats and the boiling and melting
points of the pure xylene isomers are reported below: (15)

Name hvap(J/mol) Tb(K) hfus(J/mol) Tm(K)

Ortho-xylene 36838 417.3 -13608 248.1
Meta-xylene 36413 412.6 -11577 225.4
Para-xylene 36094 411.8 -17125 286.8

(a) From the data given, explain why crystallization of p-xylene from a liquid mixture of
xylenes works better than distillation to separate p-xylene.

(b) Consider a liquid feed containing 1 mol ortho-, 2 mol meta-, and 1 mol para-xylene.
You may assume that the liquid forms an ideal solution and neglect the difference in
specific heat of solid and liquid phases in your calculations. Additionally, assume that
each species forms a completely immiscible solid phase.

(i) Estimate the temperature at which the rst solid of each isomer will form, at the
mole fraction that it exists in the liquid.

(ii) Estimate the temperature where half the p-xylene in the liquid has crystallized.
Has either of the other isomers formed a solid at this temperature? (you can
assume that both the ortho and meta isomers do not crystallize)

(iii) What is the lowest temperature that the system can have in which only p-xylene
crystallizes? What percentage of feed p-xylene has been separated?
(Assume that ortho isomer crystallize before meta isomer)