Topology consideration: A) Two distillation column used: The use of two distillation columns could not separate the

water and isoamylketone. But this topology was able to separate water from other organics other than isamylketone to a greater extent. So, I planned to insert something between these two columns to increase the separation process. B) Three distillation column used: This was my working model. However, the cost of three distillation columns was too high. So, I thought of using component separator in between two distillation column and see if it would give me the result I was looking for. C) A LLV separator between two distillation columns: Used the LLV into two distillation column but the separation was not performed well. The output distillate from the second distillation column had the mass flow rate of water and ethyl isoamylketone to be 50lb/hr and 53lb/hr. Thus the organic product waste was high and could not be ignored to proceed into justifying the system was right. D) Two LLV used consecutively together: I wanted to see what would be the result when two LLV were used consecutively together. Unfortunately, (though expected) the result was the same. I then concluded that one of the separators becomes dysfunctional and just acts as a passage with no feed separation on the first used separator and the same amount of separation in the second separator. That means using one or more consecutive phase separator does not increase the separation of the organics from the water. E) A component separator used between two distillation columns: -I used a component separator between the two distillation columns and tried my separation process. The component separator description in help section of chemcad specified that separation process of any kind can be obtained using it. So, I wanted to give this topology a try. The specifications for the distillation columns were the reflux ratios for the top and water component fraction of (1e-005) for the bottom. The component separator used in between had specifications of top temperature and bottom temperature which I changed kept both above 217F. Finally, with the component separator was I able to get the desired product with only about 5lb/hr as my organic waste which is negligible compared to the organic which we are using (4500+4500+200=9200lb/hr). So, I proceeded with this topology for my next sizing process.

Fig: Process Flow diagram for our organics and water separation process