CGE 651 SEPTEMBER 2017

TUTORIAL 1

4. State two (2) factors that will affect the rate of molecular diffusion of one component of
the gases.

Answer: Temperature

Relationship between temperature and kinetic energy show that as temperature increases
so the kinetic energy also increases. Greater kinetic energy leads to increased velocities.
Hence, it will result in greater chance of collisions between particles and then increased
rate of diffusion.

Concentration Gradient

The concentration of a substance is defined as the number of solute molecules that can be
found within a given volume. A large difference in concentration leads to a greater
probability of molecular collisions over the region and therefore increases the rate of
diffusion.

5. State the factors affecting a mass transfer rate of two immiscible fluid phases.

Answer: One of the factors that important is equilibrium relationship. The driving force for
transfer of A from liquid 1 to liquid 2 is the difference between the bulk concentrations
(concentrations A in liquid 1) and (concentrations A in liquid 2) that would be in equilibrium

6. Describe the distillation principles for an effective distillation process to occur.

Simple distillation is effective only when separating a volatile liquid from a non-
volatile substance or when separating two liquids that differ in boiling point by 50 degrees
or more. If the liquids comprising the mixture that is being distilled have boiling points that
are closer than 50 degrees to one another, the distillate collected will be richer in the more
volatile compound but not to the degree necessary for complete separation of the
individual compounds.

7. Sketch a multi-stage continuous distillation process showing the overall enriching boundary
and overall stripping boundary
 8. Column modification.

Both extract and raffinate columns were modified. The number of trays was
increased in both of the columns. At a given column shell height, a higher number of trays
requires short tray spacing, causing the tray capacity loss. To prevent column capacity
reductions, high performance trays were implemented and replaced the original sieve trays
in both of the columns. The original xylene column trays remain unchanged. The higher
capacity nature of the tray maintains the desired column capacity with shorter tray
spacing. In addition, the efficiency enhancement features of these trays can help to
maximize column efficiency.

9. An operating line equation is essential when designing a distillation column. Formulate an

operating line equation from an overall material balance equation in the operation of a
distillation column

Material balance between the n-th stage in the rectifying section and the top of
the column (area enclosed by the blue rectangle in Figure 3) is
+1 = +

Substituting D = V L, we obtain the operating line for the rectifying section,

= + (1 )

The slope of this operating line is

Slope = / = L/(D+L) = R/(R+1)

Material balance between the m-th stage in the stripping section and the bottom
of the column (area enclosed by the red rectangle in Figure 3) is:

1 = +
Substituting = , we obtain the operating line for the stripping section,

= + (1 )

11. Relative volatility is a measure of the differences in volatility between two

components, and hence their boiling points. It indicates how easy or difficult a particular
separation will be. The relative volatility of component A with respect to component B in a
binary mixture is defined as:

=

Where,
YA= mole fraction of component A in the vapor
XA= mole fraction of component A in the liquid.
In general, relative volatility of a mixture changes with the mixture composition. For
binary mixture, XB = 1 XA. If the system obeys Raoults law that are PA = PyA, PB = PyB, the
relative volatility can be expressed as:

=

Where PA is the partial pressure of component A in the vapor, PB is the partial pressure of
component B in the vapor and P is the total pressure of the system. Thus if the relative
volatility between two components is equal to one, separation is not possible by distillation.
The larger the value of , the greater the degree of separability, thus the easier the
separation.