G K Agrahari Date: 15/11/2021

MTO-1
G K Agrahari
Date: 15/11/2021
Continuous Rectification
Fractionation – multi-stage operation
Countercurrent flow of liquid and vapor

• Feed is introduced centrally into a vertical cascade of stages
• The section above the feed introduction point is called– Enriching or

Rectifying section
• Vapors are rising in this section, washed with liquid to remove the less
volatile component
• Washing liquid is provided by the condensing the vapor on top

• The condensed liquid returned to the tower is called Reflux
• Reflux is rich in more volatile component
• Also from the condenser, a stream is withdrawn, this stream is called

Distillate, rich in more volatile component
• The vapors and liquid are made from the same feed, no external
material is added in binary distillation
• The section below the feed introduction point is called Stripping, or Exhausting
Section
• In the stripping section, the feed liquid contacts the vapor, and is stripped of the
more volatile component
• The vapor is produced at the bottom of the tower by boiling the liquid in Reboiler
• A part of liquid is removed from the reboiler which is mainly non-volatile

component, also called residue
• The entire device is called – Fractionator
• Inside the tower, the liquid and vapors are always at the b.p. and d.p.
• Therefore highest temperatures are obtained at the …………. Part of

tower and lowest at the ……….. Part of tower
Enthalpy Concentration Diagram
Liquid solution enthalpy of mixing

enthaly Sensible heat
In the expression for the enthalpy of liquid solution we include the sensible heat plus enthalpy of
mixing
Saturated vapor enthalpy
Sensible heat
enthalpy of mixing ?
In the expression above, the enthalpy of saturated vapor is calculated by assuming that unmixed
liquids are heated separately as liquids to temperature tG (dew point) each vaporized at this
temperature and then vapors are mixed
What does the diagram show?
In the top graph we have plotted enthalpy of

saturated vapors at their dew point
and enthalpy of saturated liquid at their bubble point
The vertical axis shows enthalpy

The horizontal axis shows mole fraction
What is shown in the bottom graph?

What does the diagram show?
At x=0, and x=1, we get saturated liquids and vapors

(pure)!
What does λA and λB show – molar latent heats of

pure substances A and B
Similarly point C show a saturated liq mixture, heat

required to completely vaporize it, is HD-HC
Now consider point F
Drop a vertical line from F, it will intersect the

horizontal axis that will give the mole fraction, since it
is vapor so let us call it yF
In the bottom we get the yF by extending the vertical

line and reading the value from the bottom figure as
shown
Since corresponding to yF we have equilibrium liquid

mole fraction shown by xE
We extend the line from xE to above and find point E
on saturated enthalpy curve
Line EF is the tie-line..why?
Both the figures represent the equilibrium phases in

contact with each other and are drawn one above the
other to clearly show the equilibrium relations
Now consider points, M and N …what do they show
M is any arbitrary mixture in vapor phase with mole
fraction zM
Similarly N is another mixture with mole fraction zN
Let us mix these two mixtures adiabatically…

what we will get?
Another mixture… what will be its composition,
enthalpy…we can find by material & enthalpy balance
what is P here …? the mixture we get after

mixing mixtures at M and N
Eliminating the P gives:
This is the equation of straight line on the enthalpy

concentration plot
It will pass through M P N (H..,z..)
The objective of doing this exercise was to show that
any mixture can be shown to be formed by arbitrarily
mixing two mixtures.
Likewise if any mixture is arbitrarily removed from any

mixture, another mixture will result..
e.g. if mixture N is removed adiabatically from

mixture P, then mixture M will result
The use of above discussion is– when we consider point C
The coordinates are C (Hc, zC)
Draw arbitrary line CED…E is sat vapor, D is sat liquid
C can be obtained by adiabatically removing sat liquid D from sat
vapor E!!
Locate xD and yE on the lower figure (x for liquid, y for vapor)
Like CED, we can draw several arbitrary lines CGF, CKJ etc
Point D and E represent respectively saturated liquid and

saturated vapor. We can locate their mole fractions on the lower
figure.
Thus DE gives a point…several such points between sat liquid and

sat vapor can be located
Locus of all such points gives the operating line
ED is not tie-line..why?
Vertical line from C represents y=x=zC, a point on diagonal on lower

figure.
Overall Enthalpy Balance
• See all the symbols and what they represent.
e.g. Ln: Moles of liquid/time leaving nth tray
• Feed is introduced in mid, distillate is
obtained from top, and other (less volatile)
component is obtained from bottom
• A part of distillate is condensed and
recirculate within the tower– known as
Reflux– is essentially liquid
• Reflux ratio – molar ratio of reflux liquid to
withdrawn distillate
• What is L0 here, what is D?
• The tower is divided into 4 ‘envelops’ to

carry out material balance
• Envelop I is condenser
• Component Balance for A:
• What is y1, zD x0?
• What is G1
• Enthalpy Balance for envelope I:
• Where Qc is the heat load of condenser

• Enthalpy Balance for envelope II which is the
entire fractionator:
Incoming heat by Incoming heat by

reboiler feed stream
• Where QB is the heat required in reboiler

Number of Trays: Ponchon-Savarit Method
THE ENRICHING SECTION
• Assume QL = 0
0
• Consider envelope III – show on the diagram!

• This is enriching section
• Consider nth tray in THIS section
• Write material balances
Net rate of flow of component upward! (Why)

For a given operation we require fixed distillate, so this is constant
Net flow upward is constant, permanently withdrawn

• Enthalpy balance for envelope III gives
Heat removed out
• Heat removed is also defined by the following :
Net heat removed per mole of distillate withdrawn

• Therefore,
Net heat flow upward, which is constant for a given

system
• Rate of heat flow upward in enriching section is

constant and is equal to the heat permanently
withdrawn in condenser and by distillate
• Using all above equations we finally obtain
Internal reflux ratio
• We see that this is the equation of a straight line

on H-xy diagram
• The points are :
H Gn1   
, yn 1 at Gn 1 ; H Ln , xn at Ln ;  Q ', z D  at  D
• The point  D is called difference-point
• Look at its co-ordinates:
 D is net flow outward, which is distillate

This is also called as fictitious stream, in general
Number of Trays: Ponchon-
Savarit Method
• See the graphs
• We draw the straight line here, equation
shown above
• The slope is Ln/Gn+1 on x-y diagram
• This line passes through (xn,yn+1) and (zD,zD)
• Point D shows distillate and reflux for total
condenser, these have identical coordinates
on x-y
• Point D is below the bubble point (of sat
liquid)
Savarit Method
• See the graphs
• Sat vapor leaving the top tray has the same composition as distillate
and reflux
• Liquid L1 leaving the first tray must be in equilibrium with G1 (why…
ideal condition)
• Therefore L1 will fall on sat liquid curve and form a tie-line with G1
(why)
• Now how to get the point G2 (what is G2)
• We see our above equation for enriching section which will apply to
all trays
• Therefore G2 should also be on straight line with ΔD
• So simply draw a straight line from L1 to ΔD, it will intersect the sat
vapor curve at G2…
• Then a tie-line from G2 to sat liq curve..repeat
Savarit Method
• THE STRIPPING SECTION
• Consider envelope IV, any tray m
• Material Balance equations are
• Enthalpy balance equations are
L m H Lm  QB  G m 1 H Gm1  WHW
WHW  QB QB
Q"   HW 
W W
• Thus L m H Lm  G m 1 H Gm1  WQ "

• The above equations can be simplified to:

Lm ym 1  xW H Gm1  Q "
 
G m 1 xm  xW H Lm  Q "
• This is straight line through
( H Gm1 , ym 1 ) at G m 1; ( H Lm , xm ) at L m ^, and (Q ", xW ) at W

Savarit Method
• The difference point ΔW is given as:
Savarit Method
• The complete fractionator:
• Envelope II
Savarit Method
• Reflux ratio R is given as:
• Locate F, point, ZD, xW

• Locate ΔD by using Q’ or R above
• Line ΔD is extended to intersect x=xw
• Ordinate of xw gives QB
• Draw random lines such as ΔDJ to locate enriching section
operating curve
• Similarly draw random limes such as ΔDV to locate stripping
section operating curve
• Operating curve intersect at M
• Draw trays

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MTO-1

Fractionation – multi-stage operation

Countercurrent flow of liquid and vapor

• The section above the feed introduction point is called– Enriching or

• Washing liquid is provided by the condensing the vapor on top

• Reflux is rich in more volatile component

• Also from the condenser, a stream is withdrawn, this stream is called

• A part of liquid is removed from the reboiler which is mainly non-volatile

• Therefore highest temperatures are obtained at the …………. Part of

Liquid solution enthalpy of mixing

What does the diagram show?

In the top graph we have plotted enthalpy of

and enthalpy of saturated liquid at their bubble point

The vertical axis shows enthalpy

What is shown in the bottom graph?

What does the diagram show?

At x=0, and x=1, we get saturated liquids and vapors

What does λA and λB show – molar latent heats of

Similarly point C show a saturated liq mixture, heat

Now consider point F

Drop a vertical line from F, it will intersect the

In the bottom we get the yF by extending the vertical

Since corresponding to yF we have equilibrium liquid

Line EF is the tie-line..why?

Both the figures represent the equilibrium phases in

Let us mix these two mixtures adiabatically…

what is P here …? the mixture we get after

This is the equation of straight line on the enthalpy

Likewise if any mixture is arbitrarily removed from any

e.g. if mixture N is removed adiabatically from

Point D and E represent respectively saturated liquid and

Thus DE gives a point…several such points between sat liquid and

Locus of all such points gives the operating line

Vertical line from C represents y=x=zC, a point on diagonal on lower

• The tower is divided into 4 ‘envelops’ to

• What is y1, zD x0?

• Where Qc is the heat load of condenser

Incoming heat by Incoming heat by

• Where QB is the heat required in reboiler

• Consider envelope III – show on the diagram!

Net rate of flow of component upward! (Why)

Net flow upward is constant, permanently withdrawn

Heat removed out

• Heat removed is also defined by the following :

Net heat removed per mole of distillate withdrawn

Net heat flow upward, which is constant for a given

• Rate of heat flow upward in enriching section is

Internal reflux ratio

• We see that this is the equation of a straight line

• Look at its co-ordinates:

 D is net flow outward, which is distillate

• Enthalpy balance equations are

• Thus L m H Lm  G m 1 H Gm1  WQ "

• The above equations can be simplified to:

• This is straight line through

( H Gm1 , ym 1 ) at G m 1; ( H Lm , xm ) at L m ^, and (Q ", xW ) at W

• Locate F, point, ZD, xW

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