CE 408 Design

Exam #1 February 28, 2018

1. (65 points) 10,000 kg/hr saturated liquid feed of 30 weight % ethanol and 70 weight % butanol
are fed to a distillation column operating at 75 kPa. There is a 90% recovery of ethanol in the
distillate and an 85% recovery of butanol in the bottoms. The Murphree efficiency of each plate
is 75%. The column operates at 1.3 times the minimum reflux.
a. What is the mole fraction of ethanol in the feed, xf?
b. What is the mole fraction of ethanol in the distillate, xd?
c. What is the mole fraction of ethanol in the bottoms, xb?
d. What is the minimum reflux ratio, RD min?
e. What is the molar flow rate of the distillate?
f. What is the molar flow rate of the bottoms?
g. What is the mass flow rate of the distillate?
h. What is the mass flow rate of the bottoms?
i. How many stages are required to achieve this separation?
j. What is the optimal feed stage?
k. Why might we have chosen to run at 75 kPa?

Useful information:
MW ethanol = 46
MW Butanol = 74
Use graph on following page. Put your name on the graph and turn it on with your exam
booklet.

2. (35 points) One wishes to do VLE calculations on the following system, ethyl alcohol and acetic
acid:
Component 1 Component 2

a) What data from the attached tables does one need to use the UNIFAC method to calculate
activity coefficients – list all relevant parameters (numerical values from the table) that one
would need to carry out the UNIFAC calculations: R, Q, amn, . (Note that values for  come from
the chemical structure and not from the tables.) List the subgroups chosen and reference the
subgroup number with the various data you have chosen.
b) Are the mole fractions of the mixture involved in the calculations?