Dist-001H Revised: Nov 7, 2012

Distillation of Close Boiling Components with Aspen HYSYS® V8.0

1. Lesson Objectives

 Distillation column modeling

 Column profiles
 Custom stream results
 Material balance across distillation column

2. Prerequisites

 Aspen HYSYS V8.0

 Experience inserting blocks and connecting streams in HYSYS
 Introduction to vapor liquid equilibrium

3. Background

Ethylene is an important monomer, and is made from ethane. The conversion of the reaction is not perfect, so
the ethylene must be separated from the system. Ethane and ethylene are molecularly similar, and so are
difficult to separate. The difficulty of the separation is compounded by the fact that polymer production
requires extremely pure feedstocks.

The examples presented are solely intended to illustrate specific concepts and principles. They may not
reflect an industrial application or real situation.

4. Problem Statement and Aspen HYSYS Solution

Problem: A stream containing 68.5wt% ethylene with a total flowrate of 7.3 million lb/day is fed into a
distillation column consisting of 125 stages. It is desired to produce a distillate product stream containing a
minimum of 99.96 wt% ethylene with a total flowrate of 5 million lb/day. It is also desired that the bottoms
product contains no more than 0.10wt% ethylene. Determine if this separation is feasible.

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Assumptions:

- 100% tray efficiency

- Total condenser
- 300 psig column operating pressure
- A refrigerant utility stream capable of condensing the ethylene mixture (not included in model)
- Feed mixture is at 350 psig and is a vapor
- 125 stages
- Feed enters the column at stage 90
- Peng-Robinson equation of state

Aspen HYSYS Solution:

4.01. Start Aspen HYSYS V8. Select New to start a new simulation.

4.02. Create a Component List. In the Properties environment, select the Component Lists folder in the
navigation pane and click Add to add a new HYSYS component list. In Component List – 1 add Ethane
and Ethylene to the selected components list. You may need to use the search function by typing in
ethene and pressing enter to find the component ethylene.

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4.03. Create a Fluid Package. Click on the Fluid Packages folder in the navigation pane and select Add to add a
new HYSYS fluid package. Select Peng-Robinson as the property package. The Peng-Robinson equation
of state is typically used to model systems containing hydrocarbons at high pressures.

4.04. You are now ready to enter the simulation environment and construct the flowsheet. Go to the
simulation environment by clicking the Simulation button at the bottom left of the screen. On the main
flowsheet insert a Distillation Column Sub-Flowsheet from the Model Palette under the Columns tab.

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4.05. Double click on the Distillation unit on the main flowsheet, or go to UnitOps | T-100 in the navigation
pane. The Distillation Column Input Expert window will appear. Here we will create the feed and
product streams, as well as define the operating conditions of the column. On the first page, enter 125
for # Stages and define the feed and product streams as shown below.

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4.06. Click Next and page 2 will appear. This page allows you to configure the reboiler. Select Regular Hysys
reboiler for Reboiler Type Selection, and select the Once-through radio button. Click Next.

4.07. This next page allows you to input the pressure and pressure drop in the condenser and reboiler. Enter
a Condenser Pressure and Reboiler Pressure of 300 psig (2170 kPa). This indicates that there is no
pressure drop through the column, which is acceptable for this simplified example.

4.08. Click Next. This page (page 4 of 5) allows you to enter optional temperature estimates for the
condenser, top stage, and reboiler. In this case we will leave these fields blank. Click Next. The final
page allows you enter a liquid distillate rate or a reflux ratio. From our problem statement, we know
that distillate rate will be 5 million lb/day of ethylene. Select Mass for Flow Basis and enter 5000000
lb/day (94498.4 kg/h) for Liquid Rate. Select Done to enter the column property window.

4.09. We must first define the feed stream going into the column. In the Column property window, go to the
Worksheet tab. On the Conditions form, enter a pressure of 350 psig (2514 kPa), a Vapour fraction of
1, and a Mass Flow of 7.3e+06 lb/day (1.380e+005 kg/h) for the Feed@COL1 stream. Go to the
Compositions sheet in the Worksheet tab. Here we will define the composition of the feed stream.
Type a number into the Feed composition grid for Ethane to open the Input Composition for Stream
window. Select the Mass Fractions radio button, enter 0.315 for Ethane and 0.685 for Ethylene. Click
OK. The feed stream on the main flowsheet should turn blue, indicating that all required input has been

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entered and that it has solved for all properties. If you open the Feed stream property window you will
see a green status bar saying OK at the bottom.

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4.10. Now we must enter design specs to reach the desired product compositions as provided in the problem
statement. In the Column property window, go to Design | Specs. Our two design specifications for this
simulation will be distillate rate and mass fraction of ethylene in the bottoms stream. In the column
specifications form there should already be a Distillate Rate spec that was created from the column
input expert. Make sure that the distillate specification value is correct (9.450e+004 kg/h) and that the
spec is checked as active.

4.11. In the Column Specifications form, click Add and select a Column Component Fraction specification. In
the Comp Frac Spec window select the Stream radio button for Target Type. Enter Ethane@COL1 for
Draw, Mass Fraction for Basis, and 9.0e-004 for Spec Value. Select Ethylene for Components. Close
this form when all information is entered.

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4.12. Make sure that this spec (Comp Fraction) is checked as Active in the Specification Details area. You will
notice that after activating the Comp Fraction spec, the Degrees of Freedom changes to -1. This means
that the problem is over specified. To fix this, simply deactivate one of the column specifications, in this
case the Reflux Ratio. Once the reflux ratio design spec is deactivated, the column should solve. You will
notice that the status bar at the bottom of the sheet will turn green and say Converged.

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4.13. Check results. In the Column property window, go to the Performance tab. On the Summary sheet you
can see the flowrates and compositions of the feed and product streams. You can see that both
specifications described in the problem statement are met.

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4.14. In the Column Profiles sheet you can view the calculated reflux ratio, boilup ratio, as well as material
and energy profiles through the column.

4.15. On the Plots sheet you can create plots such as temperature and composition along the column, as
shown below.

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4.16. Finally, on the Cond./Reboiler sheet you can view the calculated operating conditions for both the
condenser and reboiler.

5. Conclusions

The 125 stage column was able to exceed the specification of 99.96wt% ethylene at 5 million lb/day, as well as
the bottoms having less than 0.10wt% ethylene. It could then be concluded that this column is capable of
completing the desired separation. Aspen HYSYS allows engineers to model existing equipment and see if it is
possible to repurpose it or, otherwise, design new equipment that would meet very specific criteria.

6. Copyright

Copyright © 2012 by Aspen Technology, Inc. (“AspenTech”). All rights reserved. This work may not be
reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of
AspenTech. ASPENTECH MAKES NO WARRANTY OR REPRESENTATION, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, WITH
RESPECT TO THIS WORK and assumes no liability for any errors or omissions. In no event will AspenTech be
liable to you for damages, including any loss of profits, lost savings, or othe r incidental or consequential
damages arising out of the use of the information contained in, or the digital files supplied with or for use with,
this work. This work and its contents are provided for educational purposes only.

AspenTech®, aspenONE®, and the Aspen leaf logo, are trademarks of Aspen Technology, Inc.. Brands and
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