Mass Transfer-I

Distillation
Lecture 5
Dr. Hemant Kumar
Department of Chemical Engineering
DDU Nadiad

10/9/2020 Mass transfer-I Dr Hemant Kumar 1

Continuous Distillation with reflux
Ideal Plate
• Liquid and vapor compositions
leaving the plate are in
equilibrium
For nth tray:
• Vn moles of vapor leaving the nth
tray
• Ln: moles of liquid leaving the nth
tray
• Concentrations are denoted by
yn and xn
• Vapor is enriched in more
volatile component A as it leaves
up and liquid is depleted by A as
flows downwards
 Continuous Distillation with reflux
• Concentration of A in both phases increase with the height of
the column
• Streams leaving the plates are in equilibrium but entering are
not
• Vapor from plate n+1 and the liquid from plate n-1 are
brought into intimate contact, their conc. tend to move
toward an equilibrium state
• More volatile component A, tend to vaporize from liquid
decreasing the liquid conc. from xn-1 to xn
• Less volatile component B condenses from vapor increasing
the vapor conc. from yn+1 to yn
• Since leaving liquid streams are at their bubble points and
the vapor streams at their dew points, The heat needed to
vaporize component A comes mainly from heat released in
condensation of component B
 Continuous Distillation with reflux
• Each plate in the cascade acts as an interchange apparatus in
which component A is transferred to the vapor stream and
component B to the liquid stream.
• Also, since the concentration of A in both liquid and vapor
increases with column height, the temperature decreases,
and the temperature of plate n is greater than that of plate
n-1 and less than that of plate n + 1
 COMBINATION RECTIFICATION AND STRIPPING
• To get products nearly pure at the top and bottom, feed is
admitted to a plate in the central portion of the column
• Typical column is shown in the next slide
• Plate on which feed is introduced is known as feed plate
• All plates above the feed plate constitute the rectification
section and below to that all plates including the feed plate,
constitute the stripping section.
• Liquid flows due to gravity to the reboiler B
• Steam heated reboiler generates vapor
• If no azeotrope formation takes place, overhead and bottom
products can be formed with any purity
 D, xD
F
xF

B, xB
 COMBINATION RECTIFICATION AND STRIPPING
• Vapor rising through rectifying section are completely
condensed in the condenser (C) and the condensate is
collected in an accumulator and some part of it is fed back to
the top plate known as reflux
• Reflux provides liquid on the plate needed to act on vapor
• Without reflux no rectification is possible

Overall material balances:

• The column is fed with F mol/h of concentration XF and
delivers D mol/h of overhead product of concentration XD and
B mol/h of bottom product of concentration XB
Section I: Rectification section
 Combination Rectification and stripping
Material balance in the plate column
Overall MB V1, y1
F=D+B (1) L a , xa Condenser

Component A balance Overhead product D, xd

Ln xn Vn+1 yn+1
FXF = DXD + BXB (2) R = La / D

Since there are two sections and two operating lines

One for rectification and one for stripping section
Rectification section: (Material balance around the envelop)
Vn+1 = Ln + D (3)
Vn+1 yn+1= Ln Xn+ D XD (4); Rearrange eqn (4) as
Ln D
yn +1 = xn + xD (5)
Vn +1 Vn +1
 COMBINATION RECTIFICATION AND STRIPPING
• The slope of the line defined by Eq. (5) is, the ratio of the
flow of the liquid stream to that of the vapor stream
• Substitute eqn (3) (Vn+1 = Ln + D) in eqn (5) as

(6)

Section II: Stripping section

Lm = Vm+1 + B (7)
Vm+1 = Lm – B (8)
Component A balance

(9)
Section II: Stripping section
 Section II: Stripping section
Or
(10)

Put value of Vm+1 from eqn (8) as;

(11)
 Number of Ideal Plates; McCabe-Thiele Method

• When the operating lines represented by Eqs. (6) and (11)

are plotted with the equilibrium curve on the X-Y diagram,
the McCabe-Thiele step-by-step construction can be used to
compute the number of ideal plates needed to accomplish a
definite concentration difference in either the rectifying or
the stripping section
• Equations (6) and (11), however, show that unless Ln and Lm
are constant, the operating lines are curved and can be
plotted only if the change in these internal streams with
concentration is known
• Enthalpy balances are required in the general case to
determine the position of a curved operating line (described
later)
 Number of Ideal Plates; McCabe-Thiele Method
CONSTANT MOLAL OVERFLOW:
• For most distillations, the molar flow rates of vapor and liquid
are nearly constant in each section of the column, and the
operating lines are almost straight
• This results from nearly equal molar heats of vaporization,
so that each mole of high boiler that condenses as the vapor
moves up the column provides energy to vaporize about 1
mol of low boiler
• For example, the molar heats of vaporization of toluene and
benzene are 7960 and 7360 cal/mol, respectively, so that
0.92 mol of toluene corresponds to 1.0 mol of benzene
• The changes in enthalpy of the liquid and vapor streams and
heat losses from the column often require slightly more
vapor to be formed at the bottom
 Number of Ideal Plates; McCabe-Thiele Method
• Therefore, the molar ratio of vapor flow at the bottom of a
column section to that at the top is even closer to 1.0
• In designing columns, therefore, the concept of constant
molal overflow is generally used, which means simply that in
Eqs. (3) to (11), subscripts n, n + 1, n - 1, m, m + 1, and m-I on
L and V may be dropped
• In this simplified model the material-balance equations are
linear and the operating lines straight
• An operating line can be plotted if the coordinates of two
points on it are known
• Then the McCabe-Thiele method is used without requiring
enthalpy balances
 Number of Ideal Plates; McCabe-Thiele Method
Reflux Ratio
• The analysis of fractionating columns is facilitated by the use
of a quantity called the reflux ratio. Two such quantities are
used.
• One is the ratio of the reflux to the overhead product,
• And the other is the ratio of the reflux to the vapor.
• Both ratios refer to quantities in the rectifying section. The
equations for these ratios are

• ( (12)
• We will use only RD
• If both numerator and denominator of the terms on the
right-hand side of Eq. (6) are divided by D
 Number of Ideal Plates; McCabe-Thiele Method
• The result is, for constant molal overflow

(13)
• Equation (13) is an equation for the operating line of the
rectifying section.
• The y intercept of this line is xD /(RD + 1).
• The concentration xn is set by the conditions of the design;
and RD the reflux ratio, is an operating variable that can be
controlled at will by adjusting the split between reflux and
overhead product
• or by changing the amount of vapor formed in the reboiler
for a given flow rate of the overhead product
 Number of Ideal Plates; McCabe-Thiele Method
• A point at the upper end of the operating line can be
obtained by setting Xn equal to XD in Eq.(13)

(14)

• The operating line for the rectifying section then intersects

the diagonal at point (xD, xD)
CONDENSER AND TOP PLATE
• The concentration of the vapor from the top plate is y1, and
that for the reflux to the top plate is xC (Fig. (a))
• In accordance with the general properties of operating lines,
the upper terminus of the line is at the point (xC , y1)
• The simplest arrangement for obtaining reflux and liquid
product, is the single total condenser shown in Fig. (b)

(a) Top Plate (b) Total condenser (c) Partial condenser

• Which condenses all the vapor from the column and supplies
both reflux and product.
• When such a single total condenser is used, the concs of the
vapor from the top plate, of the reflux to the top plate, and of
the overhead product are equal and can all be denoted by XD

(
 Number of Ideal Plates; McCabe-Thiele Method
• The operating terminus of the operating line becomes point
(xD xD), which is the intersection of the operating line with the
diagonal.
• Triangle abc in Fig. then represents the top plate
Partial condenser:
•When a partial condenser, or
dephlegmator, is used, the liquid reflux
does not have the same composition as the
overhead product; that is, xC ≠ xD

•Sometimes two condensers are used in

series, first a partial condenser to provide
reflux, then a final condenser to provide
liquid product as shown in Fig. (c)
(c) Partial condenser
Partial Condensor
• Vapor leaving the partial condenser has a composition y',
which is the same as XD
• The operating line passes through the point (xD, xD) on the
diagonal, but as far as the column is concerned, the
operating line ends at point a', which of course has the
coordinates (xC YI)

•Triangle a’b'c' in Fig. b represents the top

plate in the column.
•Since the vapor leaving a partial
condenser is normally in equilibrium with
the liquid condensate, the vapor
composition y' is the ordinate value of the
equilibrium curve where the abscissa is xC
as shown in Fig. b
• The partial condenser, represented by the dotted triangle
aba' in Fig. b, is therefore equivalent to an additional
theoretical stage in the distillation apparatus.

Fig. b
 Thanks
Refer book unit operations in Chemical Engg
(Mc Cabe smith)