(Chemical Engineering Plant Design)

3(3-0-6)
Where
Example 6
Solution
8
 CHAPTER 3

ECONOMIC DECISION
MAKING DESIGN OF
A SOLVENT RECOVERY
SYSTEM
3.1 PROBLEM DEFINITION AND GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS

We assume that as part of a process design

problem there is a stream containing
10.3 mol/hr of acetone
687 mol/hr of air

10
 Economic Potential (EP)

Base the calculation on complete recovery.

11
 question

Which is the cheapest alternative?

the solute concentration in a gas stream is less

than 5% adsorption is the cheapest process.
3.2 DESIGN OF A GAS ABSORBER: FLOWSHEET,
MATERIAL AND ENERGY BALANCES, AND STREAM
COSTS

16
3.2 DESIGN OF A GAS ABSORBER: FLOWSHEET,
MATERIAL AND ENERGY BALANCES, AND STREAM
COSTS

17
Material Balances
DISTRIBUTION OF COMPONENTS.

specified a flowsheet
identify the components that will appear in
every stream

The inlet gas flow to the

absorber is given in the problem
statement as 10.3 mol/hr of
acetone and 687 mol/hr of air. If
we use well water as a solvent,
then inlet stream is pure water.
The gas leaving adsorber will
 RULES OF THUMB

. Of course, we can recover 90,

or 99, or 99.9%, or Whatever,
of the acetone in the gas
absorber, simply by adding more
trays to the top of the
absorber. The cost of the gas
absorber will continue to
increase as we increase the
 It is desirable to
recover more than 99 % of
all valuable materials (we
normally use a 99.5 %
For isothermal, dilute
recovery as a first
absorber, choose L such
guess).
that L=1.4mG
EXACT MATERIAL BALANCES.

With these rules of thumb, it is a straightforward task to calculate the

material balances. For the acetone-water system at
3.3 EQUIPMENT DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS

In addition to calculating the sizes of the heat

exchangers, we must calculate the size and
cost of the absorber and the still. Before we
begin any calculations however, we want to
understand the cause-and-effect relationships of
the design variables and to see whether we can
simplify the normal unit-operations models.
Gas Absorber

For isothermal, Dilute systems, Kremser Eq. can be

used to calculate the No. of theoretical tray required
in the gas absorber

L yin mxin
ln 1 1
mG yout mxin 3.3-1
N 1
L
ln
mG
Gas Absorber

If pure water is used as the solvent,

then xin=0.
From the rules of thumb.

yout 3.3-2
1 0.99 0.01
yin

and P
L 1.4 G 3.3-3
PT
We can use the Kremser equation and the rules of thumb to
understand the effect of the design variables.
 COLUMN PRESSURE.

Suppose: PT new 2 PT
P
L 1.4 G
PT
From Eq. 3.3-3
L

3.3-2
L( new)
2
L
But since 1.4
mG
For an isothermal, dilute absorber, choose L 1.4mG (3.2 - 3)
 COLUMN PRESSURE.

Lower L Still feed will be more

concentrated,
RR
Vapor rate in still
Column diameter
Size of condenser and reboiler will decrease
Steam and cooling-water
requirement

Thus, decreasing the solvent flow to the gas absorber will

have significant effect on the design still, but no effect on
No. of tray required in the absorber.
COLUMN PRESSURE.

The absorber diameter will decrease (because of the

density effect and smaller liquid load),
Feed gas compressor will be required to obtain the
increased pressure

Since gas compressors : Most expensive type of

processing equipment
In some cases, a high pressure can be obtained
by pumping liquid stream to high pressure
somewhere upstream of the absorber
 EFFECT OF SOLVENT.

For acetone-water system, m given by

P
6.7(229)
m 2.02
PT 760
If we use MIBK as solvent (ideal mixture with acetone, So
that =1)
P
From Eq. 3.3-3 L 1.4 G Then still cost
PT

However, from Eq. 3.3-1 No. of plate does not change

 EFFECT OF OPERATING TEMPERATURE.

If we change the inlet water temp. to 40C

Then = 7.8 and P = 421 mmHg.

P
Thus, from Eq. 3.3-3 L 1.4 G
PT

L Then still cost

However, from Eq. 3.3-12 No. of plate does not change

Back-of-the enverlope Design Equation

We expect that absorber will contain 10-20 tray

N 1 N 3.3-5

It change the result <10%

For pure solvents, xin=0, and the numerator of the RHS(right-hand

side) becomes

L yin
ln 1 1 3.3-6

mG yout
Back-of-the envelope Design Equation

The rule of thumb indicate that

yin
L
1.4 and 100 3.3-7
mG yout
Air=687 moll/hr
Acetone=0.0515
yout 0.0015 mol/hr
Thus

absorber
L yin
1 1 40 1
mG yout
yin 0.0148

Air=687 moll/hr
Acetone=10.3 mol/hr
 Back-of-the envelope Design Equation

Apply the order of magnitude criterion (1<<40)

L yin L yin
ln 1 1 ln 1 3.3-8
mG out
y mG out
y

Thus

L yin
1 1 40 1 3.3-9
mG yout
 Back-of-the envelope Design Equation

The denominator of RHS. of Eq.3.3-1, ln(L/mG) can be

ln( 1 ) 3.3-10

From Taylor series expansion, we can write

L 3.3-11
ln 1
L
ln 1 0.4
mG mG
Back-of-the envelope Design Equation

From Eq.3.3-1

L yin mxin
ln 1 1
mG yout mxin 3.3-1
N 1
L
ln
mG
With these simplifications, and replacing ln by log. We
obtain

L yin
2.3 log 1 3.3-12
mG out
y
N
0.4
Back-of-the envelope Design Equation

Within a 10% error, 2.3/0.4=6 and (2.3log0.4)/0.4=-2. Hence,

simplified version of the Kremser Eq. becomes.

yin
N 2 6 log 3.3-13
yout

For 99% recovery. Eq. 3.3-13 predicts 10 tray Vs. the

Exact value of 10.1.
For 99.9% recovery 16 tray Vs. the Exact value of
16.6.
In addition.
Must calculate: height and diameter.
Appendices A3.
Distillation Column
Distillation Column

To separate acetone from the solvent water.

Use a McCabe-Thiele diagram Number of tray
Calculate :

Still diameter
Condenser and reboiler size
Steam and cooling-water loads.
Appendices A2 and A3.

http://lorien.ncl.ac.uk/ming/distil/distildes.htm
Distillation Column

Relative Volatility

Relative volatility is a measure of the differences in volatility

between 2 components, and hence their boiling points. It
indicates how easy or difficult a particular separation will be.
The relative volatility of component i with respect to
component j is defined as
yi = mole fraction of component i in the vapour
xi = mole fraction of component i in the liquid

Thus if the relative volatility between 2

components is very close to one, it is an
indication that they have very similar
vapour pressure characteristics. This
means that they have very similar
boiling points and therefore, it will be
difficult to separate the two components
via distillation.
Distillation Column

Thus, for the distillation of any multi-component

mixture, the relative volatility is often defined as

Large-scale industrial distillation is rarely undertaken if

the relative volatility is less than 1.05.
Liquid flow Rate to Gas Absorbers

For isothermal, dilute gas absorbers,the Kremser

Eq.3.3-1 Used to calculate the number of tray as a
function of L/(mG) is shown in Fig.3.4-1

If L/mG) < 1, never get close to complete recovery of the

solute even if we use an infinite number of plates
Liquid flow Rate to Gas Absorbers

if we choose L/(mG) =2 , we obtain essentially

complete recovery with only five plates. But large
solvent rates correspond to dilute feeds to the
distillation column RR,vapor rate , Column
diameter size, condenser and reboiler size , steam
and cooling water
Base on these argument, we find that we want to choose L
such that

L
1 2 3.4-1
mG
Liquid flow Rate to Gas Absorbers

Of course, L/(mG) = 1.5 is right in the middle of this range.

However, if we inspect the shape of the curves near L/(mG) =
1.5 and with high recoveries, we see that might obtain a better
trade-off between a decreasing number of plates required in the
absorber (capital cost) and the increasing capital and operating
costs of the distillation column by decreasing L. Hence, as a
first guess, it seem to be reasonable to choose L such that

L
1.4 3.4-2
mG

which is the common rule of thumb.

Fractional Recovery in Gas Absorbers

For a fixed solvent flow rate, we can always

increase the recovery of the solvent simple by:

-adding trays in the gas absorber.

Hence, there is an economic trade-off between
an increasing absorber cost as we add trays
versus a decreasing value of the solute lost.
One of these is a capital cost (the absorber),
and one is an operating cost (the solute loss).
COST MODEL.

It is common practice to report operating costs on an

annual Thus, to examine the economic trade-off, we must
also put the capital cost on annualized basis. As discussed
in Sec. 2.5, we annualize the capital cost by a capital
charge factor (CCF) of 1/3 yr, where the CCF includes all
capital-related expenses (depreciation, repairs and
maintenance, etc.). A CCF of 1/3 yr corresponds to about
a 15% discounted-cash-flow rate of return (DCFROR); Eq.
2.5.13.
Suppose we write a total annual cost (TAC) model as

TAC ($ / yr ) (Cs $ / mol)(Gyout mol / hr )(8150hr / yr ) 3.4-3

C N $/(plate yr) N plates
OPTIMUM DESIGN

Now, if we use our simplified design equation, Eq. 3.3-12

we obtain

yin yin

TAC 8150CS GYin

C N 6 log 2 3.4-4
yout yout

The optimum fractional loss is given by

TAC 6C N
0 8150CS Gyin - 3.4-5
yout / yin yout / yin
OPTIMUM DESIGN

Now, if we use our simplified design equation, Eq. 3.3-12

we obtain

yin 6C N
3.4-6
yout 8150Cs Gyin

If we consider some typical values

Cs $15.5 / mol Gyin 10mol / hr CN $850 / plate yr 3.4-7

We flind that

yin 6(850)
.004 3.4-8
yout 8150(15.5)(10)
 OPTIMUM DESIGN

We flind that
3.4-8
yin 6(850)
.004
yout 8150(15.5)(10)

Which corresponds to

Fractional recovery=99.6% 3.4-9

System approach Versus Unit Operations
Counter-Current Gas Absorption
Refer to the Figure below for a dilute
system
Notations : In terms of mole fraction
and total flowrates
y : mole fraction of solute A in the
gas phase
x : mole fraction of solute A in the
liquid phase
G : total molar flowrate of the gas
stream (gas flux), kg-moles/m2.s
L : total molar flowrate of the liquid
stream, kg-moles/m2.s
Absorber(tray)
3.5 SUMMARY, EXERCISES, AND NOMENCLATURE

Summary
A number of important concepts are presented in this chapter:
1. Process alternatives
a. A large number of alternatives can be generated even for simple
processes,
b. We use shortcut procedures to select the best alternative that we
will rigorously, providing that the process 'is profitable.
(1) We want to spend as little time as possible getting an
answer.
(2) We only want to include sufficient accuracy to be able to
make a decision
(3) We always consider the sensitivity of our calculations.
2. Shortcut design procedures
a. Itis reasonable to base process flows on 100% recoveries in
separators and base equipment designs on 99.5 %recoveries, at the
screening stage of design.
b. Order-of-magnitude arguments can be used to simplify design
equations.
3.5 SUMMARY, EXERCISES, AND NOMENCLATURE

3.Systems approach
a. You should always consider the total problem.
b. Changes in the design variables in one unit (absorber) might
affect the of some other unit (still), but not the unit under
consideration.

4.Rules of thumb-heuristics
a. If a raw material is used as a solvent in a gas absorber, consider
feeding process through the absorber.
b. It is desirable to recover more than 99% of valuable components.
c. Choose the solvent flow for an isothermal, dilute gas absorber as L
=1.4mG
d. Cooling water is available at 90F from a cooling tower and must
be returned tower at 120F or less.
e. Assume a 10F approach temperature for streams cooled with
cooling water. to remember that every rule of thumb has some
limitations!
Energy Balances for tbe Acetone Absorber