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In the proposed system for counting variables in separation processes theprocesses are and an oxygen-rich vapor bottoms stream
resolved into their simpler component classes, e.g., theoretical plates, heat exchangers, from the low-pressure column. I n this
reboilers, distillation columns, etc., and a distinction is made between those variables case the number of independent variables
which are inherent in the systems and those which may be specified for design. Results
are presented for the most commonly occurring component classes, and all possible process that could be specified is not at all
relations existing among these classes are expressed by a set of generalized equations apparent. However, without a knowledge
[(la) to (19)l. The procedure of counting variables is therefore reduced to composition from of the exact number of independent
variables for the component classes by use of the generalized equations. ’ variables i t is difficult, if not impossible,
to proceed with a design problem in a
I n the design of processes for physical pressure. It is possible to specify for this systematic way. Often experience helps
separation of components by mechanisms column the concentration of either in setting trial values of certain variables
involving mass and heat transfer, the benzene or toluene in either the distillate very close to the correct answer, without
first step usually consists of specification or the bottoms stream, the recovery of the need of actually differentiating the
of process conditions or independent either component in either stream, and implicit from the independent variables.
variables. When the sufficient and neces- the reflux ratio, viz., three independent With recent increase in use of electronic
sary independent variables are fixed, variables. Then the number of theoretical computers for design studies, however, it
the system is determined and other plates both above and below the feed is desirable to know at the outset of a
variables may be found by design com- could be found by the familiar McCabe- problem the correct number of independ-
putations. Normally the variables of a Thiele diagram, thus determining two ent variables as process conditions and
system are interrelated in such a way implicit dependent variables. A formal to feed into the machine neither more
that only a few of them could be expressed analysis shows, however, that for the nor less than those variables that can
as explicit functions of the others; the column there exist four independent be specified, thus letting the machine
remaining ones have to be determined by variables that could be specified. The perform the trial-and-error loops in
lengthy calculations. fourth variable, not stated above, is finding the correct values of the de-
An example is the design of a distilla- implicit in the McCabe-Thiele method, pendent variables. I n such a situation
tion column separating a binary mixture that is, optimum location of the feed experience could hardly substitute for
of benzene and toluene. The column is plate; the stepwise procedure is to be correct logic.
to be designed to have one intermediate transferred from one operating line to
feed, a partial reboiler with a liquid- the other in the vicinity of the inter- PRINCIPLES OF THE METHOD OF ANALYSIS
bottoms-product stream, and a total section of the lines in order to secure a The difficulty of finding the correct
condenser with a liquid-distillate-product minimum total number of plates. number of independent variables was
stream, and it will operate a t atmospheric Another example is a so-called “double- recognized by Gilliland and Reed (2),
distillation column” separating the ter- who proposed a method of attack by use
Tabular material has been deposited as document nary mixture, air-Nz, A, and Oz-with
4807 with the American Documentation Institute of the phase rule and the first law of
Photoduplication Service, Library ofCongress,Wash:
ington 25, D. C., and may be obtained for $5.00 for
vapor air feed to the high-pressure column thermodynamics. Other discussions on
photoprints or $2.25 for 35-mm. microfilm. and a nitrogen-rich vapor distillate stream the subject can be found in the literature
#-=
In a strict sense the method is applicable example the heat input t o and heat leak
to systems in equilibrium, inasmuch as the from a reboiler may be considered. T h e
basis of the phase rule is equilibrium. There- question arises of whether they are two
fore the analysis will be rigorously correct
for separation processes reducible to a stage- independent variables or just one. Some-
wise nature. Differential types of operation times i t is not easy t o see whether certain
should be viewed as consisting of an infinite conditions should be classed as inherent
number of stages each of which approaches in a system or as normally fixed in design.
some presupposed percentage of equilibrium. For instance, when a stream is divided
t h e operation is adiabatic. T h e fact of no
The conditions inherent and necessctry in heat exchange between the system and
a system, hT,,are enumerated as follows: its surrounding would appear either as
1. A system has to be in material and a n inherent condition of the system or as
energy balanre. The first law of thermo- a normally fixed variable representing
dynamics states that the total amount of zero heat leak.
energy entering any system must be exactly T h e present paper presents a self-
.CP"( equal to that leaving plus any accumulation consistent system of classifying and
Y
of energy within the system. For flow proc- accounting variables and conditions, de-
esses in which changes in kinetic energy, signed t o avoid the errors and dilemmas
potential energy, and work done are negligi- described above. T h e results of this study
ble, the first law is simplified to straightfor-
ward enthalpy, or heat, balance. Normally are tabulated and summarized so t h a t
heat balance determines one cpdjtion in a n y complex system may be analyzed
any system, and as many conditions are with a minimum of time without resorting
fixcd by material balances as there are t o first principles.
components in the system.
2. Additional conditions inherent in a PROPOSED METHOD
system are found in equality of variables of
certain streams, such as those joining diffcr- I n the present method the component
edt parts of a composite system. parts of a separation process or a system
of operations are classified as elements,
For ordinary operations certain of the complex elements, units, and complex
variables are often set by design, such units, in the order of increasing complex-
1 -@ 3(c+2) c+2
2(C+2) 2(C+2) 4(C+2) 4(c+2) c+2 c +2
0 c+2 c+2 0 0 0 c+2 c +2
@
:- 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Total 3c+7 2C+5
3c+7 2C+5 4c+9 4c+9 2C+5 2C+5
Material balance c C C C 2 ~ 4 ) 2 ~ 5 ) C C
Heat balance 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
> Nee Q - - - I(&= I(&=
- latent heat) ( 3 ) - - - latent heat) (3)
Equality - -
$m - - - 2(6) - -
Total c+1 c+1 c+1 c+2 2c+1 2C+3 C+l c+2
2C+6 c+4 2C+6 c+3 2C+8 2C+6 c+4 c+3
Complex Elemants
-4 complex element is essentially a
*Exceptions r i l l be found in which the flow rate of modified element, the modification usu-
a feed in not normally fixed. For instance. the flow ally being the addition or division of a
rate of the strip ant in a strippcr is usually conaidered
a variable avaiLble for process specification. In this
case one more variable will therefor0have to be +ded
to the number resulting from the present analysls. t h e footnote on page 240.
3 2 2 1
1 1 2(n - 1) 1
1 0 0 0
0 1 0 1
1 1 n 0
0 0 0 1
1 1 n -
stream. For a complex element, Equa- tions specific to the complex element. This to pressure and heat leak, N , - N p .
tions (l), (4), and (5) can be written as illustrates a rule of counting variables Since a complex element and its compo-
follows: devised to avoid redundancy. It will be nent element will often have common
referred to as the rule of coverage, which feeds, the foregoing division is designed
(9) will be used repeatedly in this study. to avoid redundancy in enumeration.
The conditions inherent and necessary This measure is arbitrary, but as long as
in the complex element are limited to it is followed consistently the present
those streams interconnecting the com- system of counting variables will maintain
ponent elements. These streams will be its validity.
Since a complex element is made up referred to as interstreams. When two Substitution of Equations (12) and (13)
of a combination of elements, the follow- elements are connected by a n inter- in Equations (9) and (11) yields
ing relat,ion between the complex element stream, the stream leaving one element
and its component elements holds: and the stream entering the other, which
are considered as two independent
N." = Ni" +N, (12) streams when the elements are treated
NaB= c Ni' -+ N , - N," - Np"
separately, necessarily possess the same
- c (N,"- NP") (15)
This equation states that the lohl number
of variables of a complex element is intensive and extensive variables. Such
equal to the sum of the independent equality in the intensive and extensive
variables constitutes the inherent and As an example of a complex element
variables of the component elements, one may consider a multiplate contactor,
plus N , , which stands for the freedom of necessary conditions of an interstream.
If an interstream is single phase, these of which a gas absorber is a particular
choice of the number of times which any
component element could be repeated. conditions stand for C + 2 variables. case. (See Table 2*.) With the number of
plates equal to n, from Table 1, for a
In counting the normally fixed vari-
The variable, No, is not equal to the
number of such repetitions but represents ables for a complex element, the followingtheoretical plate, iVia = 2C +
6. For n
relation is adopted : theoretical plates the number of variables
the single degree of freedom with which is n(2C -I- 6). Since the number of plates,
the number of such repetitions could be
chosen. By means of Equation (12), the N," = N I B +C (N,' - Np") (13) n, could be specified by design, the
specification of n represents one addi-
inherent conditions in the component This equation divides the normally fixed tional independent variable, or N , = 1.
elements which are already covered in variables into two groups, those pertain-
N,* will not be counted again as condi- ing to the feed, N,, and those belonging *See footnote on page 240.
f
N class system S y mbal N, N,
-
Mixer M 2C+6 0
Separator S c+4 0
Divider T c+2 m-1
Theoretical plate P 2C+G 0
Total condenser or
reboiler C or R C+3 c+3 0
Elements Heat exchanger H 2C+8 2C+7 1
Condenser reboiler K 2C+G 2C+7 -1
Partial condenser
or reboiler C, or R, c+4 1 c+3 1
Total condenser
with twephasc c,~ ci-3 1 c+3 0
product
Pump, heater, or
- cooler J c+4 1 Ct3 1
3C+10 4 3C+ 10 0
2C+7 2 2C+G 1
Distillation column
with one inter- 6 4
mediate feed
Distillation column
with side feeds
and side drawoffs
f +2d+3
Extractor with
extract reflux 4
* * *
Distillation columns
in series 2 C1 n , + ~ + 2 2 1
2 &+la 2 C1n , + C + 1 4 8
Distillation column
5 5 5
with auxiliary
stripper or 2 c1n , + C + 2 4 2 x1n , + 1 3 2 c1n i + C + 1 5 9
rectifier
Distillation column 6 6 6
with auxiliary 2 xn,+C+31 2 Cn,+18 2 Cn,+C+20
complete column 1 1 1
Simple double
column
Binary azeotropic
distillation
column
Twin azeotropic
distillation
(6+*)20
columns
Absorption-desorp-
tion cycle (2 -
pressures; 3*
1 temp.)
Absorption-desorp-
tion cycle (2 -
pressures; 6*
2 temp.)
N,' =
minor
- c (N, - N,)
minor
(19)
*9ee footnote ou page 240.
(SeeTable 2.)
one feed plate, P,: 4
n,)
N,: 0
+ +
4c 10 NOTATION
C = condenser; also component
+
two multiplate contactors, P,: 2(n1 nz)
one condenscr, C, or C,: 1
one reboiler, R , or R,: 1
T h e inherent conditions are represented f = side feed
C + +
( N , - iYr) = 2()t1 n,) 6 b y the seven interstreams: F
H
=
=
feed, terminal
heat exchanger
m,nor
2(n1 + 4 + C + 8
P = theoretical plate
=