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MEBA 210 LECTURE 4

The document discusses process streams in multi-unit processes, focusing on recycle, bypass, and purge streams. Recycle streams are essential for recovering unconsumed reactants and catalysts, as well as for diluting process streams to improve efficiency. The document also outlines the approach to calculations involving bypass and recycle streams, providing an example related to air dehumidification.

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Fiskani Matemanga
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13 views10 pages

MEBA 210 LECTURE 4

The document discusses process streams in multi-unit processes, focusing on recycle, bypass, and purge streams. Recycle streams are essential for recovering unconsumed reactants and catalysts, as well as for diluting process streams to improve efficiency. The document also outlines the approach to calculations involving bypass and recycle streams, providing an example related to air dehumidification.

Uploaded by

Fiskani Matemanga
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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MALAWI UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

MASS & ENERGY BALANCES (MEBA-210)

MULTI-UNIT PROCESS CALCULATIONS


Engineering Department - MIT
PROCESS STREAMS

• There are different types of special streams very common in multi-


unit processes
• These include recycle, bypass, and purge streams
Recycle streams
• Often, during chemical processes, there is need to recycle material
from a downstream unit back to an upstream unit
• The stream containing the recycled material is known as a recycle
stream
Recycle stream

Recycle stream

UNIT 1 UNIT 2
Fresh
Product
feed
Recycle stream
• There are several reasons for using a recycle stream
i. Recovery and reuse of unconsumed reactants
• It is rare for any chemical reaction such as A → B to proceed to completion
• No matter how little A is present in the feed or how long the reaction mixture
remains in the reactor, some A is normally found in the product
• Any A that leaves with the product represents wasted resources since all the
reactant fed to a process must be paid for
• When chemical reactions are involved in a process, recycle of unused
reactants to the reactor can offer significant economic savings
ii. Recovery of catalyst
• Many reactors use catalysts to increase the rate of the reaction
• Catalysts are usually expensive, and the processes generally include
provisions for recovering them from the product stream and recycling them
to the reactor.
• They may be recovered with the unconsumed reactants or recovered
separately in special facilities designed for this purpose
iii. Dilution of a process stream
• Suppose a slurry (a suspension of solids in a liquid) is fed to a filter
• If the concentration of solids in the slurry is too high, the slurry is difficult to
handle and the filter will not operate properly
• Rather than diluting the feed with fresh liquid, a portion of the filtrate can be
recycled to dilute the feed to the desired solids concentration
Process Streams
Bypass stream
• In a bypass stream, a fraction of the feed to a process unit is diverted
around the unit and combined with the output stream from the unit
• By varying the fraction of the feed that is bypassed, we can vary the
composition and properties of the product
Bypass and recycle streams
• Bypass and recycle calculations are approached in exactly the same
manner:
• The flowchart is drawn and labeled
• Overall balances and/or component balances around the entire
process, process units or the stream mixing point following the
process unit are used to determine unknown variables
Example
Fresh air containing 4.00 mole% water vapor is to be cooled and
dehumidified to a water content of 1.70 mole% 𝐻2 O. A stream of fresh
air is combined with a recycle stream of previously dehumidified air
and passed through the cooler. The blended stream entering the unit
contains 2.30 mole% 𝐻2 O. In the air conditioner, some of the water in
the feed stream is condensed and removed as liquid. A fraction of the
dehumidified air leaving the cooler is recycled and the remainder is
delivered to a room. Taking 100 mol of dehumidified air delivered to
the room as a basis of calculation, calculate the moles of fresh feed,
moles of water condensed, and moles of dehumidified air recycled.
Example…..

Example 4.5.1 in Elementary Principles of Chemical Processes Textbook


References
• Felder, R.M & Rousseau, R.W. (2000). Elementary principles of
chemical processes, 3rd edn, John Wiley
• Himmelblau, D & Riggs, J. (2012). Basic Principles and Calculations in
Chemical Engineering. (8th Ed.), Prentice-Hall.

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