Component recoveries and product purities

Component recoveries & product purities

Hydrocarbon recovery process
Light and heavy key components
Multistage distillation columns
Split ratio, split fraction
The Separation power / relative split ratios
 Component recoveries and product purities
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Product recovery is the act of minimizing “the amount of waste/by-
products sent to landfills by recovering materials and parts from old or
outdated products by means of recycling and remanufacturing (including
reuse of parts and products

Why is product recovery important?

Product recovery will not only help you recover more product, but you can
also adjust to higher purity requirements, and potentially reduce energy
consumption
 Component recoveries and product purities
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Why recovery?

To reduce liquid content of high GPM (gallons per thousand cubic
feet ) gases in gathering systems

To eliminate potential for condensation (dew points)

To reduce BTU contents of gas for use in engines (fuel conditioning)
 Component recoveries and product purities
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Purity can be defined as the absence of impurities or types of matter other
than the substance itself. Several physical properties can be used to identify
a pure substance. Boiling point, melting point, color, density and solubility
are examples of physical properties

Why is product recovery important?

Product recovery will not only help you recover more product, but you can
also adjust to higher purity requirements, and potentially reduce energy
consumption
 Component recoveries and product purities
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Equipment for separating components of a mixture is designed and
operated to meet desired operating conditions or required specifications,
which are typically given as component recoveries, product purities, split
fraction (SF), split ratio (SR), key components, light key, heavy key,
product specifications, maximum allowable percentages of impurities,
and/or separation power.
 Component recoveries and product purities
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 Component recoveries and product purities
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 Separation power
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The degree of separation which can be obtained with any particular separation
process is indicated by “ the separation power or separation factor”.

The objective of a separation device is to produce products of differing

composition. So it is logical to define the separation factor in terms of product
composition.
 Component recoveries and product purities
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SP = Separation power
 Component recoveries and product purities
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 Component recoveries and product purities
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 Split ration and split fraction
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Separation Power (SP) = relative split ratio

nonsharp separation
sharp separation

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 Component recoveries and product purities
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 Component recoveries and product purities
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In Figure 1.9, the block-flow diagram for a hydrocarbon separation system, the
feed is the bottoms product from a reboiled absorber used to deethanize (i.e.,
remove ethane and components of smaller molecular weight) a mixture of
refinery gases and liquids.
 Component recoveries and product purities
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The separation process of choice in this example is a sequence of three multistage
distillation columns. The composition of the feed to the process is included in
Figure 1.9, where components are rank-listed by decreasing volatility, and
hydrocarbons heavier (i.e., of greater molecular weight) than normal pentane and
in the hexane (C 6)-to-undecane (C11) range are lumped together in a socalled
C6+ fraction.
 Split ration and split fraction
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Split fraction: SF, for component i in separator k is the fraction of that component
found in the first product: where n(1) and n(F) refer to component molar flow
rates in the first product and the feed, respectively.

Split ratio: Alternatively, a split ratio, SR, between two products, may be
defined as. where n(2) refers to a component molar flow rate in the second
product. Alternatively, SF and SR can be defined in terms of component mass
flow rates.
 Split ration and split fraction
Deethanized
. feed into four products:
 C5+-rich bottoms,
 C3-rich distillate, The feed is partitioned
C3-rich distillate iC4-rich distillate
Overhead, Bottom product
 iC4-rich distillate,
 nC4-rich bottoms.

Split fraction/split ratio depends on:

1) The thermodynamic and transport properties
in the vapor and liquid phases,
2) The number of contacting stages, and
3) The relative vapor and liquid flows through
nC4-rich distillate
the column. C5+-rich distillate
 Split ration and split fraction
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 Split ration and split fraction and product purity
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 Split ration and split fraction and product purity
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1.7 Key components
Each of the three columns is designed to
make a split between two adjacent
components (called the key components)
in the list of components ordered in
decreasing volatility. As seen by the
horizontal dividing lines in Table 1.6, the
three key splits are nC4H10/iC5H12,
C3H8/iC4H10, and iC4H10/nC4H10 for
Columns 1, 2, and 3, respectively.

From the split fractions listed in Table 1.6, it is seen that all splits are
relatively sharp (SF > 0.95 for the light key and SF < 0.05 for the
heavy key), except for column 1, where the split ratio for the heavy
key (iC5H12) is not sharp at all, and ultimately causes the nC4-rich
bottoms to be relatively impure in nC4, even though the split
between the two key components in the third column is relatively
sharp.
 Table 1.6 Split Fractions and Split Ratios for Hydrocarbon Recovery Process

“light key “

“heavy key” key split key split key split

=nC4H10/iC5H12 =C3H8/iC4H10 =iC4H10/nC4H10

SF > 0.95 for the light key

SF < 0.05 for the heavy key
 Component recoveries and product purities
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 First Product (1)
split fraction
SFnC4,k
= n(1)nC4,k/ n(F) nC4,k
= 226.60/227.30
= 0.9969
Feed (F)
SFiC5,k
= n(1) iC5,k/ n(F) iC5,k
= 28.10/40.00
= 0.7025

Second Product (2)

split ratio
SRnC4,k
= n(1) nC4,k/ n(2) nC4,k
= 226.60/0.70
= 323.7

SRiC5,k
= n(1) iC5,k/ n(2) iC5,k
= 28.10/11.90
= 2.361
Table 1.6 Split Fractions and Split Ratios for Hydrocarbon Recovery Process

2 3 4 5 6 7
3 4 6

5 7

2
In Table 1.6, for each column,

 Values of Split Fraction (SF) and Split Ratio (SR) decrease in the order
of the ranked component list.

 SF may be a better quantitative measure of degree of separation than SR

because SF is bounded between 0 and 1, while SR can range from 0 to a
very large value.

 Recovery: the ratio of each component in a designated system product

to that in the feed to the system. The component recoveries are all
relatively high (>95%) except for the two pentane isomers.

 Product purity: These purities for the main component were computed
for all except the C5+-rich product,
which is [(11.90 + 16.10 +
205.30)/234.10] or 99.66% pure with respect to the pentanes and
heavier. Such a product is a multicomponent product. One of the most
common multicomponent products is gasoline.
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Product impurity levels and a designation of the impurities are included in
product specifications for chemicals of commerce. The product purity with
respect to each component in each of the three final products for the
hydrocarbon recovery process, as computed from the process operating
data of Table 1.5, is given in Table 1.7, where the values are also extremely
important because maximum allowable percentages of impurities are
compared to the product specifications.

The C5+ fraction is not included because it is an intermediate that is sent to

an isomerization process. From the comparison in Table 1.7, it is seen that
two products easily meet their specifications, while the iC4 product barely
meets its specification. If the process is equipped with effective controllers, it
might be possible to reduce the energy input to the process and still meet C3
and nC4-rich product specifications.

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