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Separations HW1

This problem set for the CBE-UY 3233 course focuses on basic separation processes and thermodynamics, with a total of 70 points available. It includes three main problems: material balance around a distillation column, calculations of minimum work for CO2 separation from air and flue gas, and analysis of vapor pressure data for acetone and ethanol. Students are required to show their work, state assumptions, and submit their own solutions by February 4, 2025.

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Helen Ziqi Zhang
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10 views

Separations HW1

This problem set for the CBE-UY 3233 course focuses on basic separation processes and thermodynamics, with a total of 70 points available. It includes three main problems: material balance around a distillation column, calculations of minimum work for CO2 separation from air and flue gas, and analysis of vapor pressure data for acetone and ethanol. Students are required to show their work, state assumptions, and submit their own solutions by February 4, 2025.

Uploaded by

Helen Ziqi Zhang
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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CBE –UY 3233 Chem & Biomolecular Eng Separations - Spring 2025
Problem Set # 1
Basic Separation Processes and Thermodynamics – 70 points
HW due end of day Tuesday, February 4, 2025

Instructions: Read Lecture Notes and Seader (Chapter 1, 2). Please write legibly. If you
collaborate, please include the name(s) of your collaborator(s) on the upper right hand side of the
first page. Remember, you are expected to submit your own work. Please show your work and
state assumptions. Please upload any spreadsheets or codes you used to the class site.

1. Material Balance around a separation process: (10 points):


A liquid mixture is fed to a distillation column. It contains 40% toluene and 60% benzene by mass.
The bottom product stream comprises of 10% of the net benzene fed to the column. The overhead
(top) stream comprises of a mixture with 95 mole % benzene. The density of the feed mixture is
0.8 kg/L and the feed flow rate is 2500 L/h. Determine the mass flow rates and composition (mass
fractions) of all the streams (feed, bottom and overhead)

2. Minimum work of separation (30 points): The global average mole fraction of CO2 in air in
2022 was 417 parts per million (i.e. 417 x 10-6). In contrast, the mole fraction of CO2 from flue
gas vented from a typical natural gas fired power plant is around 4% as shown in Table below.

Flue gas
Flue gas composition –
Dry air composition composition – coal
Components natural gas power plant
(mol%) power plant
(mol%)
(mol%)
N2 78.0773 74.3 68.03
O2 20.947 12.0 3.63
CO2 0.0417 4.0 12.45
H2O 0 8.8 15.08
Ar 0.934 0.9 0.81

2.1 Compute the minimum work and moles of feed required to separate 1 mole of pure CO2 from
air for the following recoveries and provided air composition:
a. 10%, b. 40%, c. 95%.
2.2 Compute the minimum work and moles of feed gas required to separate 1 mole of pure CO2
from the flue gas from the natural gas power plant for the following recovery rates and provided
flue gas composition:
a. 10%, b. 40%, c. 95%.
2.3 Compute the minimum work and moles of feed gas required to separate 1 mole of pure CO2
from the flue gas from the coal gas power plant for the following recovery rates and provided flue
gas composition:
a. 10%, b. 40%, c. 95%.
2

In each case, the separation produces 1 mol of pure CO2 and a residual stream with other
components (including CO2, depending on the recovery rate). Provide a table documenting
minimum work (kJ/mol of CO2 recovered) and moles of feed gas required in each case.

Recall: recovery is the fraction of component (CO2) in the feed stream that is recovered in the
product stream (pure CO2 stream).

3. Henry’s and Raoult’s Law (30 points): The vapor pressure of each component in a mixture of
acetone (A) and ethanol (B) were measured at 353 K. The results are tabulated below:

xB PB (atm) PA (atm)

0 0.000 2.127
0.11 0.182 1.908
0.204 0.316 1.720
0.305 0.432 1.548
0.409 0.537 1.347
0.511 0.636 1.187
0.613 0.731 0.997
0.708 0.801 0.792
0.81 0.897 0.559
0.906 0.991 0.304
1 1.073 0.000

3.1 Which component is more volatile? How do you know?

3.2 Using this data, plot a partial vapor pressure as a function of mole fraction diagram. If this
solution were ideal (Hint: Raoult’s law), what would diagram look like? Plot a partial vapor
pressure as a function of mole fraction diagram for the ideal solution.

3.3 Based on the difference between the empirical data and the ideal model, what can you
conclude about the component activity coefficients?

3.4 Calculate the activity coefficients at each composition for both acetone and ethanol. Does
this match your initial conclusions about the activity coefficients?

3.5 Using the empirical data, determine the Henry’s law constants for each component.

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