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4, December 2013
www.seipub.org/acer
olafadehan@yahoo.com; *oolafadehan@unilag.edu.ng
Abstract
A steady state mathematical model was developed to
describe the operation type of multicomponent distillation
process using a plate-to-plate method involving Murphree
plate efficiency. The developed model equations were
applied to a ternary system of acetone-chloroform-methanol
in a ten-stage distillation column. An algorithm for solving
the operation type of this ternary distillation problem was
presented. Numerical solutions were obtained via MATLAB
using condensers boundary condition as initial guess. The
simulated results of the variations of temperature, activity
coefficient and mole fractions of acetone, chloroform and
methanol in the liquid, with number of theoretical stages in
the 10-stage distillation column, conformed to the trends in
the literature. The convergence behaviour of the method
employed in this work showed that convergence was
achieved within 7-10 iterations.
Keywords
Distillation; Plate-to-plate Method; Murphree Plate Efficiency;
Ternary; Activity Coefficient; Convergence
Introduction
Distillation is by far the most widely practiced
technique to separate mixtures of chemical species in
petroleum, natural gas, liquid and chemical industries.
It is a separation process that takes advantage of
differences in boiling points in a number of
vaporisation and condensation steps (Solomon, 1981).
Brooks (1993) defined distillation column as a device
used to separate components of a mixture using the
thermodynamic properties of the components. A
schematic diagram of a typical distillation unit with a
single feed and two product streams is shown in
Figure 1. The column itself is adiabatic. The initial
mixture to be processed, known as the feed, is
introduced somewhere near the middle of the column
to a tray known as the feed tray, f . The feed tray
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,
=
, ,
,
,
+1 ,
+1
(2)
L
where R is the reflux ratio = o . Equimolar rates
D
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x j ,n =
y j , n 2 x j , D 1 E MV
j ,n
(4)
1 1 E MV
+ E MV
j ,n
j ,n K j ,n
so that
y j , n 2 x j , D 1 E MV
j ,n
1.0
=
MV
+ E MV
K j ,n
=j 1 =j 1 1 1 E j , n
j
n
,
R
1
and 2 =
.
where 1 =
R +1
R +1
M
x j ,n
(5)
(6)
The vapour pressures of pure components for a nonideal system are correlated with temperature by
Antoine equation:
B
(7)
log p o= A
T +C
where A, B and C are constants, different for each
component and T is the temperature in oC. Hence,
B
j ,n log 1 A
T +C
K j ,n =
(8)
po
The activity coefficient of a ternary system is
calculated by Margule's equation (Wohl, 1946):
In =
A2,1 x22 (1 2 x1 ) + 2 A1,2 x1 x2 (1 x1 ) + A3,1 x32 (1 2 x1 )
1, n
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In =
A3,2 x32 (1 2 x2 ) + 2 A2,3 x2 x3 (1 x2 ) + A1,2 x12 (1 2 x2 )
2, n
+ 2 A2,1 x1 x2 (1 x2 ) 2 A1,3 x12 x3 2 A3,1 x1 x32 +
(10)
In =
A1,3 x12 (1 2 x3 ) + 2 A3,1 x1 x3 (1 x3 ) + A2,3 x22 (1 2 x3 )
3, n
+ 2 A3,2 x2 x3 (1 x3 ) 2 A2,1 x1 x22 2 A1,2 x12 x2 +
(11)
(9)
K j , n = j , n , Tn
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M
M
calculation step of the stripping section) cannot be
Fx j , F
=
x j , D( co )
= 1.0 (16)
Fx j , F
x j , D( co ) =
(14)
x j , D ( as ) y j , f (W )
x j,D
x j ,W
(18)
=
D +W
cal 1
x j , D
x j ,W cal x j ,W ( as ) y j , f ( D )
x j ,W
Start
Data Read
j = 1,n
no
yes
j = 1,s
no
yes
Type Result
End
FIGURE 2 FLOW CHART FOR SOLVING THE OPERATION TYPE OF MULTICOMPONENT DISTILLATION PROBLEM.
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FIGURE 3 TEMPERATURE PROFILE IN THE DISTLLATION COLUMN AT DIFFERENT MURPHREE PLATE EFFICIENCIES
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Acetone (1)
Chloroform (2)
Methanol (3)
Ai
Bi
Ci
7.11714
6.95465
8.08097
1210.595
1170.966
1582.271
229.664
226.232
239.726
and Q = 0.368 .
In the application of the proposed method, a feed of
100 mol/h containing 20 mol % methanol, 30 mol %
chloroform and 50 mol % methanol is to be
fractionated in a distillation column operating at
atmospheric pressure of 760 mmHg, with fractional
recovery of acetone and chloroform in the distillate
120
R = 3.0
and
R* = 2.5 respectively,
and
boundary
z j ,F
0.2
0.3
0.5
mol/h,
=
xD ,1 0.99,
=
xD ,2 0.01 , N =10 , 0.4 E MV
j , k 1.0 ,
E MV
j , k = 0.4 and 0.6 and then decreases onwards to
Antoines constants
Component
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FIGURE 10. VARIATION OF ACTIVITY COEFFICIENT OF ACETONE IN ACETONE-CHLOROFORM-METHANOL SYSTEM WITH STAGES
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dimensionless
Greek Symbols
as
assumed value
cal
calculated value
co
corrected value
feed plate
component
Conclusions
Multicomponent distillation column has been
modelled using plate-to-plate method involving the
Murphree plate efficiency and simulated using
MATLAB program. The calculations were initiated
with the boundary condition at the condenser.
However, further work is required to nullify the
assumption of constant molar overflow. This removes
the incorporation of the enthalpy balance equation.
The method is simple with fast convergence
achievement but there is a need for integrating a
search method with the main program for finding an
optimum feed stage based on some appropriate
objective function.
dimensionless
molar rate of distillate, mol/h
E MV
j ,n
fraction
of
component
in
feed,
dimensionless
Subscripts
Superscripts
*
stripping section
saturation condition
REFERENCES
Multicomponent
Distillation:
Use
of
of
plates
in
section,
xi
122
mol
zi
number
n
dimensionless
dimensionless
1768.
Notation
A j ,n
yi
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397.
Levy, S. G., Van Dongen, D. B. and Doherty, M. F. (1985).
Design and Synthesis of Homogeneous Azeotropic
463.
Teknologi, Malaysia.
Wohl, K. (1946). Application of Margules Equation to
Ternary Systems, Trans. Ame. Inst. Chem. Engrs., 42, 215-
223.
15.
Design
Method
for
Impact
of
Mathematical
Model
Selection
on
(2007).
Multicomponent
123