Mass Transfer Unit Operations

ChEg 3114

3rd year || 2020

Tsegay G
 Multi component distillation

3/6/2020 Tsegay G.G. || Mass Transfer Unit Operations 2

Multicomponent Distillation
• In industry, most of the distillation processes involve more
than two components.
• The multicomponent separations are carried out by using the
same type of distillation columns, reboilers, condensers,
heat exchangers and so on.
• However some fundamental differences are there which is
to be thoroughly understood by the designer.

3/6/2020 Tsegay G.G. || Mass Transfer Unit Operations 3

Multicomponent Distillation
• In multicomponent systems, the same degree of freedom is not
achieved because of the presence of other components.
• Neither the distillate nor the bottoms composition is completely
specified.
• The components that have their distillate and bottoms fractional
recoveries specified are called key components.
• The most volatile of the keys is called the light key (LK) and the
least volatile is called the heavy key (HK).
• The other components are called non-keys (NK). Light non-key
(LNK) is referred when non-key is more volatile than the light
key whereas heavy non-key (HNK) is less volatile than the heavy
key.
• Proper selection of key components is important if a
multicomponent separation is adequately specified.
3/6/2020 Tsegay G.G. || Mass Transfer Unit Operations 4
What is fractional recovery ( FR)?

3/6/2020 Tsegay G.G. || Mass Transfer Unit Operations 5

Cont..

3/6/2020 Tsegay G.G. || Mass Transfer Unit Operations 6

Cont..

3/6/2020 Tsegay G.G. || Mass Transfer Unit Operations 7

Cont..

3/6/2020 Tsegay G.G. || Mass Transfer Unit Operations 8

Cont..

3/6/2020 Tsegay G.G. || Mass Transfer Unit Operations 9

Cont..

3/6/2020 Tsegay G.G. || Mass Transfer Unit Operations 10

Cont..

3/6/2020 Tsegay G.G. || Mass Transfer Unit Operations 11

Cont..

Distillate

Bottom

3/6/2020 Tsegay G.G. || Mass Transfer Unit Operations 12

Design distillation column for the multi-component systems

3/6/2020 Tsegay G.G. || Mass Transfer Unit Operations 13

Cont..
Mole fraction summation in D & B

3/6/2020 Tsegay G.G. || Mass Transfer Unit Operations 14

Cont..
Suppose 3-component problems; the unknowns include

3/6/2020 Tsegay G.G. || Mass Transfer Unit Operations 15

Cont..
• In total, there are 6 unknowns for this 3-component
distillation problem
• Equations
1. overall-balance equation
2. species-balance equations
3. Equilibrium equations
And one energy equation
• external energy balance or
• a stage-by-stage internal balance

3/6/2020 Tsegay G.G. || Mass Transfer Unit Operations 16

Cont..
• Unfortunately, however, by the energy equations will create
another unknown(s); thus, this is NOT a good choice
• To solve this kind of problem, we have to employ the trial &
error technique, by carrying out the following procedure:
• Make a guess for the number of moles (or mole fraction)
of one unknown component in the distillate or the bottom
• Solve the problem (by using that guessed variable)
• Finally, check if all equations are true

3/6/2020 Tsegay G.G. || Mass Transfer Unit Operations 17

Cont..
To enable us to make an excellent first guess, it is
recommended that we firstly assume that

3/6/2020 Tsegay G.G. || Mass Transfer Unit Operations 18

Cont..

3/6/2020 Tsegay G.G. || Mass Transfer Unit Operations 19

Cont..

3/6/2020 Tsegay G.G. || Mass Transfer Unit Operations 20

Cont..

3/6/2020 Tsegay G.G. || Mass Transfer Unit Operations 21

Cont..
Solution

3/6/2020 Tsegay G.G. || Mass Transfer Unit Operations 22

Cont..

3/6/2020 Tsegay G.G. || Mass Transfer Unit Operations 23

Cont..

3/6/2020 Tsegay G.G. || Mass Transfer Unit Operations 24

Cont..

3/6/2020 Tsegay G.G. || Mass Transfer Unit Operations 25

Cont..

3/6/2020 Tsegay G.G. || Mass Transfer Unit Operations 26

Cont..
We also have the following 2 equations:

3/6/2020 Tsegay G.G. || Mass Transfer Unit Operations 27

Cont..
Let’s start the calculations with the distillate

3/6/2020 Tsegay G.G. || Mass Transfer Unit Operations 28

Cont..

Doing the same for the bottom

3/6/2020 Tsegay G.G. || Mass Transfer Unit Operations 29

Cont..

3/6/2020 Tsegay G.G. || Mass Transfer Unit Operations 30

Cont..
Hence

3/6/2020 Tsegay G.G. || Mass Transfer Unit Operations 31

Cont..

3/6/2020 Tsegay G.G. || Mass Transfer Unit Operations 32

Cont..

3/6/2020 Tsegay G.G. || Mass Transfer Unit Operations 33

 End

3/6/2020 Tsegay G.G. || Mass Transfer Unit Operations 34