PRACTICAL EXERCISE NO.

12

Open Ended Lab: Develop a simulation of any non-conventional equipment in Aspen HYSYS.
Also validate your model with existing data (literature/experiments).

Description

Water has a high latent heat (heat of vaporization) compared to many other components. For the
separation of a water-acetone mixture (50 wt.-% each), it may be more energy efficient to use
extraction instead of direct distillation. In this lab, we utilize 3-methylhexane as a solvent to
remove water through liquid-liquid extraction, followed by distillation to remove the solvent from
acetone.

Procedure

1. Open a new simulation environment.

2. Create a component list. Add Acetone,

Water, and 3methylhexane to the
component list.

3. Select PRSV as the fluid property package.

4. Add a Mixer from the Model Palette.

Create two Inlet streams called fresh and
Solvent and Outlet stream called total
Solvent. Specify a Temperature of 25°C
and 30°C respectively, and a Pressure of 1
bar. In the Composition form enter a Mole
Fraction of 1 for 3-methylhexane.
 5. Now add the Liquid-Liquid Extractor. On
the first page enter a Top Stage Inlet called
Feed and select total solvent for the Bottom
Stage Inlet. Change the number of stages to
10. Enter an Ovhd Light Liquid stream
called top product and a Bottoms Heavy
Liquid stream called Water.

6. Now add solvent recovery column with 50

number of stages, pressure drop of 100 KPa
at condenser and reboiler side and full reflux
type condenser is used.

7. Select the cooler. Select stream Solvent

Recovered as the Inlet, and create an Outlet
called solvent 2 at Temperature of 30°C and
a Pressure of 1 bar with an energy stream
called Q-Cool.

8. In order to prevent throwing away acetone

product. Add a Recycle block and select
stream Solvent 2 as the Inlet and stream
Solvent as the Outlet. Then check the results.

Conclusion

Based on the simulation results, it would require 79980 kJ/hr of heating and 19350 kJ/hr of cooling
to separate the water –acetone mixture via liquid-liquid extraction. This design is proven to be
feasible as it allows for selective separation ,purification and can recover valuable substances .
Simulation Results
Validation of the model