Worksheet 2.

ABSORPTION AND STRIPPING CH138P

Name: SEPARATION PROCESSES Page 1 of 1

Present clean and clear solutions to the following problems. Highlight your final answer by enclosing it within a box.

1. Ninety-five percent of the acetone vapor in an 85 vol% air stream is to be absorbed by countercurrent contact with pure
water in a valve-tray column with an expected overall tray efficiency of 50%. The column will operate essentially at 20C and
101 kPa pressure. Equilibrium data for acetone-water at these conditions are as follows:

mol% acetone in water 3.0 7.20 11.7 17.1

acetone partial pressure in air, torr 30 62.8 85.4 100.3

Use graphical methods to calculate:

a. the minimum value of ratio of moles of water per mole of air, (L’/V’)min.
b. the number of equilibrium stages required using a value of L’/V’ = 1.25 (L’/V’)min
c. the concentration of acetone in the exit water

2. A straw oil used to absorb benzene from coke-oven gas is to be stripped in a sieve-plate column at atmospheric pressure to
recover the dissolved benzene. Equilibrium conditions at the operating temperature are approximated by Henry’s law such
that, when the oil phase contains 10 mol% benzene, the benzene partial pressure above the oil is 5.07 kPa. The oil may be
considered nonvolatile. The oil enters containing 8 mol% benzene, 70% of which is to be recovered. The steam leaving
contains 3 mol% benzene.
a. How many theoretical stages are required?
b. How many moles of steam are required per 100 mol of oil-benzene mixture?
c. If 85% of the benzene is to be recovered with the same oil and steam rates, how many theoretical stages are
required?

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