Enthalpy vs.

Composition

Lecture 5 1
Enthalpy vs. Composition

 We will also need to employ energy

balances, based on enthalpy, for certain
separation problems.

Lecture 5 2
Enthalpy vs. Composition
It will be convenient later on in separation problems to express the relative volatility in terms of the
mole fractions and vice-versa

For binary systems, the mole fractions are related by

y B  1  y A and x B  1  x A Eq. (2-4)

and substituting these into Eq. (2-20) yields:

y A (1  x A )
 AB  Eq. (2-22)
(1  y A )x A

1  xA
or  AB  K A
1  yA

Solving Eq. (2-22) for yA and xA yields:

 AB x A
yA  Eq. (2-23)
1  ( AB  1) x A
and
yA
xA 
 AB  ( AB  1) y A

Lecture 5 3