ChE 102

Spring 2013
Project #3
Solvent Waste Recovery Using a Packed Bed Version 2
Background
Packed columns are used throughout the chemical industry to purify products using the
difference in solubility of materials to effect the separation. The unit operations of gas and liquid
absorption use packed bed equipment, as shown in Figure 1.
Liquid water feed, L xin

Clean vapor stream, V, yout

To river
Packed Bed Solvent
Absorption Tower
Activated
Carbon Bed

Vapor feed, V, yin

Liquid containing solvent, L, xout

Figure 1: Illustration of the main pieces of equipment used in a solvent absorption process
In the process shown in Figure 1, a waste gas stream containing a volatile and non-green
solvent is produced from a pharmaceutical coating process. The solvent is bad for the
environment since it is somewhat toxic in high concentrations and has high environmental
persistence. In order to address the problem of the waste solvent, the company is considering
using a packed bed scrubbing system to remove the volatile solvent from the gas stream. The
volatile solvent is transferred from the vapor stream to the water stream in the absorption tower.
The water leaving the bottom of the packed bed absorber contains a significant amount of the
solvent that entered the column. This liquid is sent through another packed bed containing
activated carbon that preferentially adsorbs the solvent from the water. The cleaned water is then
discharged to a nearby river. The activated carbon continues to adsorb the solvent until it
becomes saturated, at which point, it is returned to the supplier, who replaces the spent carbon
with fresh material for a fee.

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The key operating variables in the absorber are the flow of liquid feed, L kmol/h (this stream is
process water into which the solvent dissolves) and the size of the packed tower.
Project Details
When designing a solvent removal system, it is necessary to minimize the cost of the whole
process system. This cost is termed the Equivalent Annual Operating Cost (EAOC), and it is
given as Equation 1.
EAOC[$/y]

i 1

i 1

PCi [$]( A / P, i, n)[1/y] UCi [$/y]

(1)

This cost includes one-time purchase costs for the column and activated carbon vessel (PCi), the
continuous operating (utility) costs (UCi) for the process water, the cost to replace the carbon,
and any penalties for emitting more than the EPA recommended amounts of solvent. The terms in
[ ] show the units for the calculation. The term (A/P,i,n) is the factor to convert the one-time
purchase cost of equipment into an equivalent annuity. You should assume that the effective
annual interest rate, i, is 8% p.a., and that the length of the project, n, is 10 years. The equation
for (A/P,i,n) is:

( A / P, i , n)

i (1 i )n
(1 i) n 1

(2)

Assignment
You are to optimize an absorption system (by calculating the value of L that minimizes the
EAOC) to treat V = 1000 kmol/h of air that contains 10 kmol/h of acetone. The absorber
operates at 40C and 1 atm. In order to satisfy EPA regulations, the maximum recommended
amount of acetone that can be emitted to the atmosphere is 0.001 kmol/h. If the vapor stream
leaving the process is at or below this limit there are no assessed penalties. However, if the
vapor has a higher level of solvent, then a penalty of $0.1/kg of emitted solvent above the limit is
assessed. The capacity of the activated carbon is 0.5 kmol solvent/kg of carbon, and the
replacement cost of the carbon is $0.4/kg of carbon.
The number of transfer units (NtoG) for the packed column, which is a measure of column height,
is given by:
y A,out y *A,out
y A,in y *A,out

If A = 1

1
A

1
1

exp N toG 1
A
A

(3)

y A,out y *A,out
y A,in

y *A,out

1
N toG 1

(4)

In Equations 3 and 4, the following terms are defined:

L
, assume A 1
mV
L is the liquid molar flowrate

absorption factor A

V is the vapor molar flowrate

N toG is called the number of transfer units , which is a measure of packed bed height
y *A,out mx A,in
P*
P
P is the pressure of the system

P * is the vapor pressure of the solute, vapor pressure is of the form

B
, where A, B, and C are tabulated parameters , and T is in C
T C
the vapor pressure equation is called the Antoine Equation

log 10 P * A

note that A in this expression is different from A in the absorption factor

The purchase cost of the tower is given by:

PCcol [$] $10, 000(Vcol [m3 ])0.85

(5)

where Vcol = D2H/4 is the volume of the tower in m 3, and D[m] and H[m] are the diameter and
height of the tower, respectively. The diameter and height of the tower are given by:

D[m] 0.10 V [kmol/h]

0.5

H [m] 3 1.5 NtoG

(6)
(7)

The cost of the process water is given by:

UCwater [$ / h ] 100[$ / 1000 m3 ]L[kmol/h] Vwater [m3 / kmol]

(8)

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You may assume that the purchase cost of the vessel containing the activated carbon is equal to
5% of the cost of the tower.
You should present your final results as two plots. The first should show how each term in
Equation 1 changes with L, and the second plot should show the EAOC (y-axis) as a function of
L (x-axis) for an output mole fraction just meeting the EPA requirement and for an output mole
fraction 10 times the EPA requirement. If you have time, try different values between these two
values. Is it ever economical to exceed the EPA requirement? Your report should contain a
physical explanation of the reason for the trends on these plots.