2MULTICOMPONENT DISTILLATION CALCULATIONS -

ASSIGNMENT
1. A distillation column with a partial reboiler and total condenser is being used to seperate a
mixture of benzene, toluene, cumene. The feed is 40 mole % benzene, 30 mole % toluene and
30 mole % cumene and is input as a saturated vapour. We desire 95 % recovery of the toluene
in the distillate and 95 % recovery of the cumene in the bottoms. The reflux is returned as a
saturated liquid and constant molal overflow (CMO) can be assumed. Pressure is 1 atm.
Equilibruim can be represented as constant relative volatilities. Choosing toluene as the
reference component,
benz-tol = 2.25 and cumene-tol = 0.21. Take basis of 100kmol/h of feed.
(a) Find the number of equilibuim stages required at total reflux
Data: A = Toluene (LK) B = Cumene (HK) C = Benzene (LNK)
(b) Find the minimum reflux ratio.

2. A mixture containing 0.2 mole fraction benzene (BT= 2.25), 0.3 toluene (TT= 1.0), 0.1
xylene (XT= 0.33) and 0.4 cumene (CT= 0.21) is to be seperated by a distillation column
equipped with a partial reboiler and total condenser. The 2-phase feed contains 98.9% vapour.
99.8 % of the cumene is to be recovered at the bottom and 99.5 % of the toluene is to be
recovered at the distillate, if the reflux ratio is fixed at 3Rmin. Take R = 1.35
a) Determine the number of stages needed for the seperation
b) Determine the location of the plates
3. A distillation column is to seperate 4750 moles of feed composed of 37 moles % n- butane,
32 mole% isopentane, 21 mole% n-pentane and 10 mole% n-hexane. The feed is supplied as a
mixture of 75% liquid, 25 % vapour (i.e q value is 0.75). The column operates at an average
pressure of 2 atm and is required to produce a distillate product containing 95 mole% n- butane
and 5 mole% n- isopentane. The bottoms should not contain more than 570 moles of n-butane
k value

Given the K values:

K values of compnents Top bottom

n- butane 1.75 5.00
isopentane 0.65 2.35
n-pentane 0.26 1.15
n-hexane 0.10 0.61

(a) Determine the minimum number of stages by fenske equation

(b) Use underwood method to calculate the minimum reflux ratio
(c) Determine the number of theoretical stages required if the reflux is 1.2 times the minimum
reflux using Eduljee equation and chung equation