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Chemical Engineering 120 - Separation Processes: Homework #1. Due: Friday, 12 April 2002

This document contains 3 homework questions for a chemical engineering separation processes course. Question 1 asks students to compute the minimum work of separation for a 4-component mixture. Question 2 asks students to use the Wilson equation to predict activity coefficients for an ethanol-benzene system and compare to experimental data. Question 3 asks students to construct x-y and T-x-y diagrams for a benzene-toluene system at 1 atm using relative volatility and vapor pressure data.

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116 views2 pages

Chemical Engineering 120 - Separation Processes: Homework #1. Due: Friday, 12 April 2002

This document contains 3 homework questions for a chemical engineering separation processes course. Question 1 asks students to compute the minimum work of separation for a 4-component mixture. Question 2 asks students to use the Wilson equation to predict activity coefficients for an ethanol-benzene system and compare to experimental data. Question 3 asks students to construct x-y and T-x-y diagrams for a benzene-toluene system at 1 atm using relative volatility and vapor pressure data.

Uploaded by

Sata Ajjam
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Chemical Engineering 120 – Separation Processes

Homework #1. Due: Friday, 12 April 2002.

Question 1 – Thermodynamics of separation process (Problem 2.2 in text)


In petroleum refineries, a mixture of paraffins and cycloparaffins is commonly
reformed in a fixed-bed catalytic reactor to produce blending stocks for gasoline and
aromatic precursors for making petrochemicals. A typical multi-component product
from catalytic reforming is a mixture of ethyl benzene with the three xylene isomers.
If this mixture is separated, these four chemicals can then be subsequently processed
to make styrene, phthalic anhydride, isophthalic acid and terephthalic acid. Compute,
using the following data, the minimum work of separation in Btu/h for T0=560°R if
the mixture below is separated at 20 psia into three products.

Split Fraction (SF)


Component
Feed, lbmol/h Product 1 Product 2 Product 3
Ethylbenzene 150 0.96 0.04 0.00
p-Xylene 190 0.005 0.99 0.00
m-Xylene 430 0.004 0.99 0.00
o-Xylene 230 0.00 0.015 0.985

Feed Product 1 Product 2 Product 3


Phase condition Liquid Liquid Liquid Liquid
Temperature, °F 305 299 304 314
Enthalpy, Btu/lbmol 29,290 29,750 29,550 28,320
Entropy, Btu/lbmol-°R 15.32 12.47 13.60 14.68

Question 2 – Azeotropic mixture and non-ideal solution model (Prob. 2.23 in text)
Benzene can be used to break the ethanol/water azeotrope so as to produce nearly
pure ethanol. The Wilson constants for the ethanol(1)/benzene(2) system at 45°C are
Λ12=0.124 and Λ21=0.523. Use these constants with the Wilson equation, one of the
emperical non-ideal solution model that relates activity coefficient with local
composition concept, to predict the liquid-phase activity coefficients for this system
over the entire range of composition and compare them with the following
experimental result[Austral J. Chem.,7,264(1954)]:

x1 ln γ1 ln γ2
0.0374 2.0937 0.0220
0.0972 1.6153 0.0519
0.3141 0.7090 0.2599
0.5199 0.3136 0.5392
0.7087 0.1079 0.8645
0.9193 0.0002 1.3177
0.9591 -0.0077 1.3999
Hint: Wilson Equation(two constants)

 Λ12 Λ 21 
ln 1 = − ln( x1 + Λ12 x2 ) + x2  − 
 x1 + Λ12 x2 x2 + Λ 21 x1 

 Λ12 Λ 21 
ln 2 = − ln( x2 + Λ 21 x1 ) − x1  − 
x
 1 + Λ x
12 2 x 2 + Λ x
21 1 

Question 3 – Vapor liquid equilibrium of binary mixtures(Problem 4.8 in text)


The relative volatility,α, of benzene to toluene at 1 atm is 2.5. Construct an x-y
diagram for this system at 1 atm. Repeat the construction using vapor pressure data
for benzene and for toluene from the following table in conjunction with Raoult’s and
Dalton’s laws. Also construct a T-x-y diagram.
(a) A liquid containing 70 mol% benzene and 30 mol% toluene is heated in a
container at 1 atm until 25 mol% of the original liquid is evaporated.
Determine the temperature. The phases are then separated mechanically, and
the vapors condensed. Determine the composition of the condensed vapor and
the liquid residue.
(b) Calculate and plot the K-values as a function of temperature at 1atm.

Vapor Pressure of Benzene


Vapor pressure, Torr 20 40 60 100 200 400 760
Temperature, °C -2.6 7.6 15.4 26.1 42.2 60.6 80.1

Vapor Pressure of Toluene


Vapor pressure, Torr 20 40 60 100 200 400 760 1520
Temperature, °C 18.4 31.8 40.3 51.9 69.5 89.5 110.6 136

Hint:
1. The relative volatility of A with respect to B is defined by
αA,B=KA/KB=(yA/xA)/(yB/xB)

2. Vapor pressures Ps (in torr) of pure benzene and pure toluene as functions of
temperature T (in K) are given by the following equation.
k2
ln P s = k1 +
k3 + T
Constants for benzene: k1 = 15.5645, k2 = -2602.34, k3 =211.271
Constants for toluene: k1 = 17.2741, k2 = -3896.3, k3 = 255.67

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