Bioprocess Calculations

N3BTE02

Dr. Sudhir Ranganath

Department of Chemical Engineering

Contact Hours/Week: 3 (Lecture) Credits: 4.0

Contact Hours/Week: 3 (Lecture) + 1 (Study hour) Credits: 3.0
CIE Marks: 50
Total Lecture Hours: 39 CIE
SEE Marks:5050
Marks:
Total Hours: 39 (L) + 13 (S) SEE Marks: 50
UNIT II
Material balance without reaction for steady operations

Typical steady state material balances for evaporation,

mixing, filtration, distillation, extraction, and crystallization

Material balance with recycle, purge & bypass operations

Material Balance in Distillation
Distillation is a very widely used unit operation which is used to separate liquid
mixture into components by boiling in a distillation column.

The driving force for separation is the difference in boiling points (or) vapor
pressures of the components. In a mixture, the more volatile component is
richer (higher concentration) in the vapor phase and the less volatile
component is richer (higher concentration) in the liquid phase. Hence, we get
a vapor and liquid whose compositions are different from each other.

The products of a distillation process is the distillate (top product) which is

rich in the more volatile components and the residue (bottom product) which
is rich in the less volatile components.

Types of distillation include:

◾ Flash distillation (Flash vaporization)
◾ Differential distillation (Simple distillation)
◾ Steam distillation
◾ Fractional distillation (Rectification)
◾ Azeotropic distillation
◾ Reactive distillation
Material Balance in Flash Distillation
Flash distillation (or) flash vaporization is a type of distillation process where a
liquid mixture at a high temperature and pressure is subjected to a sudden
reduction in pressure, the liquid gets partially vaporized and the resulting
liquid-vapor mixture is separated into the distillate and the residue as shown
below.

This process is a single-stage operation in which the distillate and the residue
have equilibrium compositions. The compositions of products will be
appreciably different only if the volatilities of the components are widely
different.
Material Balance in Flash Distillation
Consider the flash distillation of a liquid mixture containing components A and
B, in which A is the more volatile component.

Let !, " and # be the molar flow rates of the feed, distillate and the residue,
respectively.

Let $% , $& and $' be the compositions of the more volatile component A
expressed in mole fractions of A in the feed, distillate and the residue,
respectively.

Overall material balance is given by: ! = " + #

Material balance for the more volatile component A is given by:

!$% = "$& + #$'

Problem 50
A mixture of benzene and toluene consisting 10% by mole benzene is
continuously distilled at a rate of 1000 kmol/h in a distillation column. 95% of
the benzene in the feed is recovered as distillate product which contains 98%
benzene and 2% toluene. Calculate (a) the moles of bottom product; (b) the
composition of the bottom product.
Distillate,
Solution: Basis is 1000 kmol/h of the feed
+ kmol/h
Feed, ! kmol/h %(
Assume that benzene is component A Distillation
%& column
! = 1000 kmol/h; %& = 0.10; %( = 0.98 Residue,
- kmol/h
Overall material balance is given by: %4

! = + + - = 1000 …….. (1)

Since 95% of benzene in the feed is in the distillate, we can write

0.95 × !%& = +%( → 0.95 1000 × 0.1 = + × 0.98 → + = 96.94 kmol/h

Using Eq (1), we get: - = 903.06 kmol/h which is no. of moles of residue.

Solution to Problem 50b
Material balance for component A is:
Distillate,
% kmol/h
!"# = %"& + (")
Feed, ! kmol/h "&

1000 0.1 = 96.94 0.98 + 903.06") "#

Residue,
Solving, we get: ") = 0.00554 ( kmol/h
"3
Therefore, the composition of the residue is as follows:

Mole fraction of benzene = 0.00554 (or) 0.554%

Mole fraction of toluene = (1 - 0.00554) = 0.99446 = 99.446%

Problem 51
Liquid from a brewery fermenter can be considered to contain 10% ethanol and
90% water. This fermentation product is pumped at a rate of 50000 kg h-1 to a
distillation column on the factory site. Under current operating conditions, a
distillate of 45% ethanol and 55% water is produced from the top of the column
at a rate of one-tenth of the feed.
(a) What is the composition of the waste “bottoms” from the still?
(b) What is the rate of alcohol loss in the bottoms?
Distillate, D = 5,000 kg h-1
Solution: 45% ethanol
Basis: 50,000 kg of feed (or) 1 hour of 55% water
operation

Total Material balance:

$ = % + ' → 50,000 = 5,000 + ' Feed, F = 50,000 kg h-1
Distillation
10% ethanol
, = -./// kg h-1 column
90% water
!0 = 0.10, !1 = 0.45, !" = ??

Bottoms, B = ??
!" = ??
Solution to Problem 51a & b
Ethanol material balance:
!"# = %"& + (") → 50000×0.1 = 5000×0.45 + (")
(") = 2750 kg h-1 = Ethanol in the bottoms

Water balance:
!(1 − "# ) = % 1 − "& + ( 1 − ")
50000×0.9 = 5000×0.55 + ((1 − ") )
((1 − ") ) = 42250 kg h-1 = Water in the bottoms

Composition of the bottoms:

7899 :; <8=>? @A ) BCCDE
% water in B= ×100 = ×100 = 93.88%
7899 :; ) BDEEE

7899 :; >=I8A:J @A ) CKDE

% ethanol in B= ×100 = ×100 = 6.12%
7899 :; ) BDEEE

Rate of alcohol loss in the bottoms:

From ethanol balance, we know that the rate of ethanol loss = 2750 kg h-1
Problem 52
Absolute or 100% ethanol is produced from a mixture of 95% ethanol and 5%
water using the Keyes distillation process. A third component, benzene, is
added to lower the volatility of the alcohol. Under these conditions, the
overhead product is a constant-boiling mixture of 18.5% ethanol, 7.4% water,
and 74.1% benzene. The process is outlined below. Use the following data to
calculate the volume of benzene that should be fed to the still in order to
produce 250 liters of absolute ethanol. Density of 100% ethanol is 0.785 g cm-3
and density of benzene is 0.872 g cm-3.
Distillate
74.1% benzene
18.5% ethanol
Feed 7.4% water
95% ethanol
5% water
Distillation
column
Benzene

Bottoms
100% ethanol
Solution to Problem 52
Basis: 250 liters of 100% ethanol product Distillate, D kg
74.1% benzene
Convert volume of the streams
18.5% ethanol
into mass using the following: Feed, F1 kg 7.4% water
95% ethanol
!"## = %&' × )*+#,-. 5% water
Distillation
column
%&' = 250000 234
Benzene, F2 kg
56789:;< = 0.785 A⁄234

Bottoms, B = 250 L
100% ethanol

Mass of ethanol in B = 250000×0.785 = 196250 A = 196.25 EA

Ethanol balance: 0.95FG = 0.185) + 196.25 ………. (1)

Benzene balance: FI = 0.741) ………… (2)

Total mass balance: FG + FI = ) + K = ) + 196.25 ………. (3)

Solution to Problem 52
Substituting Eqs (1) and (2) into (3), we get: ! = 161.4 kg

Therefore, from Eq (1), we get: '( = 238.1 kg

Therefore, from Eq (2), we get: ', = 119.6 kg

Amount of benzene fed = 119.6 kg.

./00 78 9: ((BC;; :
So, the volume of benzene fed= = = = 137 E
1230456 ;.<=, :⁄?@A ;.<=, :⁄?@A
Thank you