ChE 351 Fall 2014

Term project, due Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Your team is assigned to design a purification unit to produce a product of 98+% 2-propanol
from a mixture of 22% 2-propanol in water, which also contains a small amount (2%) of acetone.
The product is intended to be sold for medical uses, so any residual acetone has to be very small
(<0.1%). This feed stream is available at a rate of 3000 kg/h, from another part of the plant
which oxidizes propane to isopropanol.
2-Propanol and water forms an azeotrope. So you will need to find a method to overcome that.
Write a report of your design. Its format is different from what was in the tentative class
scheulde.
The report should have no more than 4 pages of text, single space, excluding any diagrams,
figures, and tables. It should have a one-paragraph summary (outside the 4-page limit) that
includes the essence of the design, how much product is made and the cost of production. The
text should describe the design, referring to figures and tables, etc. that cover the process flow
diagram, a table (or tables) providing information about the composition and temperature of all
streams, heat duty of heat exchangers and utility used.
The report should have a section on discussion of process safety and any environmental and
health issue with discharge. Any toxic and environmentally unacceptable wastes must be treated
before discharge.
Provide a cost estimate of the process, leading to the production cost of the 2-propanol with
details on how the estimate is made.