Chapter 7

SEPARATION SYSTEMS
General Structure of the separation System
First determine the phase of the reactor effluent
stream. For vapour liquid processes, there are
only three possibilities:

1. If the reactor effluent is a liquid, we assume that

we only need a liquid separation system.
2. If the reactor effluent is a two - phase mixture,
we can use the reactor as a phase splitter (or put a
flash drum after the reactor).

If the reactor is operating above cooling – water

temp., we usually cool the reactor vapour streams
to 35 οC and phase split this stream.
3. If the reactor effluent is all vapour, we cool the
stream to 35oC and we attempt to achieve a phase
split or to completely condense this stream.
 Vapour Recovery System
When we attempt to synthesize a vapour recovery
system, we need to make two decisions:
What is the best location?
What type of vapour recovery system is cheapest?
Location of Vapour Recovery System
Four choices:
Purge stream.
Gas recycle stream.
Flash vapour stream.
None.
 Liquid Separation System
The decisions that we need to make to synthesize the
liquid separation system include the following:
How should light ends be removed if they might
contaminate the product?
What should be the destination of the light ends?
What separations can be made by distillation?
What sequence of columns do we use?
How should we accomplish separation if
distillation is not feasible?
 Light Ends
 Some light ends will be dissolved in the liquid leaving the phase
splitters & normally some will be dissolved in the liquid streams
leaving the vapor recovery systems.
 If these light ends might contaminate the product, they must be
removed.
Alternatives for Light ends removal
 Drop the pressure or increase the temperature of a stream, and
remove the ends in a phase splitter.
 Use a partial condenser on the product column.

 Use a pasteurization section on the product column.

 Use a Stabilizer column before the product column.

Contd.

 The options are listed in the order of increasing cost and

therefore we prefer to use the earlier entries. However,
to make a decision for light-ends removal, it is
necessary to know the flow rates of the light ends & to
make some shortcut calculations to estimate the amount
recovered.
1. Flash Calculations
2. Partial Condensers
3. Pasteurization Columns
4. Stabilizer Columns
 Destination of Light Ends:

Vent them (possibly to a flare system)

Send the light ends to fuel
Recycle to vapor recovery system or flash drum.
We must determine the amount of light ends as a
function of the design variables before we can
make a design.
 Applicability of Distillation

It is the least expensive means of separating

mixtures of liquids.
However, if the relative volatilities of two
components with neighbouring boiling points is
less than 1.1 or so, distillation becomes very
expensive i.e. a large reflux ratio is required
which corresponds to large vapor rate, large
column dia, large condensers and reboilers, and
large steam and cooling water costs.
Whenever we encounter two neighbouring
components having a relative volatility of less
than 1.1 in a mixture, we treat this group as a
single component in the mixture.
 Applicability of Distillation

In other words, we develop the best

distillation column sequence for the group
and the other components, and then we
separate the lumped components by using
other procedures.
 Column Sequencing – Simple Columns
For sharp splits of a 3 component mixture
(with no azeotropes) we can either recover
the lightest component first or the heaviest
component first, and then we split the
remaining two components.
 Column Sequencing
When the number of components increases,
the number of alternatives increases very
rapidly (see Table in the next slide)
When the number of components increases, the
number of alternatives increases very rapidly.
Number of 2 3 4 5 6
Components

Number of 1 2 5 14 42
Sequences
General heuristics for column sequencing
Remove corrosive components as soon as
possible
Remove reactive components or monomers
as soon as possible
Remove products as distillates
Difficult separation last
Selection of the Distillation Sequence
 The vapour flow rate up the column is a good measure of
both capital and operating costs
 There is clearly a relationship between the heat duty required
to run the distillation and the vapour rate, since the latent
heat relates these two parameters
 However, there is also a link between vapor rate and capital
cost , since a high vapour rate leads to a large dia column
 The high vapor rate also requires large reboilers and
condensers
Prediction of Total Vapour Load