FAO: Dr Antonia Borissova

Mariam Hussain
200603585
PEME2030
HYSYS 2 - Mass & Energy Balances (Nonreactive Systems)

Problem statement

100 kmol/h of a mixture consisting of the following three components and their
respective mole fractions:

n-Hexane

0.3

n-Heptane

0.4

n-Octane

0.3

is fed at a temperature of 60 C into the first of two separators operating at a

pressure of 200 kPa absolute and Temperature 123 C. The liquid from the first
separator is then fed to the second separator operating at the same pressure, but a
temperature of 125 C. A fraction 0.7 of the liquid from the second separator is
recycled to the first separator.

Selection of equation of state

There are a few reasons the SRK equation of state setting was used. The SRK
setting uses the Soave-Redlich-Kwong method to determine the properties of the
components of the streams, it is suitable because all chemicals present are nonpolar and this equation is only valid for non-polar chemicals. This equation of state
has advantages over other equations of state. For example the basic Redlich-Kwong
equation can be used, however, when the chemicals involved are non-polar or
complex the results are very inaccurate. In the separator processes designed, the
chemicals were all non-polar and quite complex, making this equation rather
unsuitable.
The Soave Redlich-Kwong equation is shown in equation 1 below:

RT
a(T )

(1)
V b V (V b)

p=pressure, kPa, a(T)= a parameter which is the function of temperature,

R 2T c 2
its equal to 0.4274
pc

Mariam Hussain

T
1 m 1

Tc

0.5

200603585
2

where m= 0.48 1.7 0.176 2 and

b 0.08664

= acentric factor. V=volume in m3,

RT c
where R is the universal gas constant (RICHARDS, 2001).
pc

T=temperature, Kelvins

Background
Separation of chemicals highly depends on the physical and chemical properties of
the chemicals; separation processes exploit these properties to allow efficient
separation, such as differences in boiling points, viscosity and density.
The differences is boiling points of different chemicals is used to separate chemicals
in industrial processes such as fractional distillation of crude oil, in the
pharmaceutical industry various isomers of pharmaceuticals, and in the purification
of polymers where lower boiling point monomers are removed. Chemicals with lower
boiling points have a higher volatility. In industrial applications, temperatures of
evaporators are carefully controlled to evaporate and separate various chemicals.
When a mixture is evaporated, the boiling point and hence volatility of the mixture is
different to the volatility of the individual components so the temperature needs to be
controlled and at a point to allow the composition of the desired chemical to be
maximum in the evaporated stream (PRESSURECHEMICALCO, 2011).

Aspen HYSYS is used in industry to design process plants. It is often used in the
petroleum industry because it is pre-set with various crude oil components and the
relevant properties of these components such as cloud point. It simplifies the designs
of multi-component, multi-unit operations. It contains multiple operations used in the
petroleum industry such as separators and reactors (ASPENTECH, 2012a).

Aspen HYSYS has the advantage of accurately stimulating real life stream flows,
stimulating expected behaviour of these streams (ASPENTECH, 2012b).

Computer simulation
Firstly, Aspen HYSYS was opened, then a new case was opened up and the SRK
fluid package was selected and three components was added, n-heptane, n-hexane
and n-octane. Then, the simulation environment was added.
Mariam Hussain

200603585
3

2 process flow diagrams were designed on Aspen HYSYS software. Both process
flow diagrams involved mixers and separators. Due to this it was apparent both
systems would have mass and energy balances. To define any stream, 2 properties
must be known. As the input temperature and compositions of the 3 chemicals were
know aswell as the input pressure and the molar basis was set as
inlet=100kmol/hour, when all the unit operations were all added and heat was input
as required, HYSYS automatically using the SRK equation calculated the properties
of all streams.
For the 1 separator process, the process flow diagram was set up as shown in figure
1 below:

Figure 1: process flow diagram for 1 separator system

The inlet and inlet feed had the specified properties:
xC6 H14 0.3
xC7 H16 0.4
xC8 H18 0.3
The inlet pressure was 200 kPa and the molar flow was set as 100kMol/hr, these
were entered in the workbook. Energy was also added as an inlet by double clicking
on the separator as the separator was set to operate at 123 oC and the energy input
was automatically calculated. This separation occurs due to the differing boiling
points of the three components to be separated. Hexane has a boiling point of 69 oC,
heptane has a boiling point of 98oC and octane has a boiling point of 125oC
(ELMHURST, 2003).

Mariam Hussain

200603585
4

Following this, a 2 separator system was designed in the Aspen HYSYS software. It
was designed as shown in figure 2 below:

Figure 2: 2 separator system PFD

The inlet flows were same as for separator 1, the pressure of feed is 200kPa, heat is
input into separator 1 to allow it to reach a temperature of 123 oC. There are 2
product streams from the first separator, a vapour stream and a liquid stream. The
liquid stream is fed into another separator and the second separator operates at a
temperature of 125oC as heat is further added into the second separator to maintain
this temperature. There are 2 product streams from the second separator; a liquid
product and vapour product stream. The liquid product stream is split into 2 streams
where 70% of the liquid product is a recycle stream and is fed into the separator. To
Mariam Hussain

200603585
5

ensure the ratio of the liquid product to recycle is 7:3, a tee is added and the liquid
stream which is fed into the tee parameters are set to make the flow ratio of the
output 0.7 for the liquid product and 0.3 for the recycle.

Results
For 1 separator system:

Figure 3: properties of all inlet and outlet streams

Figure 3 above shows the properties of the inlet and outlet streams. The text in blue
was entered and the text in black was calculated by the software.

Mariam Hussain

200603585
6

Figure 4: compositions of the 1 separator system

Figure 4 above shows the compositions of the input and output streams of the 1
separator system.

Mariam Hussain

200603585
7

Figure 5: heat input into the separator

Figure 5 shows the heat input into the separator.

Mariam Hussain

200603585
8

Separator 2 results

Figure 6 below shows the properties of all the streams of the 2 separator system.

Figure 6: properties of all streams of the 2 separator system

Mariam Hussain

200603585
9

Figure 7 below shows the commpositions of all the components of the 2 separator
system.

Figure 7: components compositions of all streams in the 2 separator system

Mariam Hussain

200603585
10

Figure 8: heat inputs into both separators

Figure 8 shows the 2 individual heat inputs of both separators of the 2 separator
system; heat 1 is the heat input into the first separator and heat 2 is the heat input
into the second separator.

Mariam Hussain

200603585
11

Discussion
Both the 1 separator and 2 separator systems are able to effectively separate these
mixtures; however there are advantages and disadvantages of both systems.

Temperatur
e, oC

Vapour
fraction of
hexane

115
117

0.5325
0.5271

Mariam Hussain

liquid
fraction
of
hexane
0.3
0.2971

Vapour
product
molar
flow,
kMol/hr

liquid
product
molar
flow,
kMol/hr
0
100
1.266
98.73

Vapour
fraction
of
Octane

liquid
fractio
n of
Octan
e
0.1254
0.3
0.1281
0.302
2

molar flow
of hexane
in vapour,
kMol/hr
0
0.667308
6

200603585
12

m
fl
h
in
k

119

0.4839

0.2616

17.29

82.71

0.1485

121

0.4422

0.2293

33.21

66.79

0.172

123

0.4024

0.2003

49.31

50.69

0.1988

125

0.3651

0.1746

65.83

34.17

0.2294

127

0.3303

0.1518

83.01

16.99

0.2639

129

0.3

0.133

100

0.3

0.331
7
0.363
7
0.398
5
0.436
0.476
1
0.515
5

The 2 separator system has higher initial costs due to the fact it has and extra
separator and a tee flow splitter unit which ultimately makes set-up of the
equipment more costly. Furthermore, the total energy input to the 2 separator system
is much greater than the total energy input into the one separator system, meaning
the running costs for a one separator system is much greater than the one separator
system. Moreover, the 2 separator system has the advantage that it contains a
recycle stream which allows the overall separation of hexane in the inlet feed to be
maximised because some of the liquid outlet containing hexane is again fed into the
first reactor as the recycle stream.

A sensitivity analysis was carried out on the 1 separator system. Firstly the effect of
changing temperature of the inlet feed stream on the compositions of the n-hexane
component and n-octane component was recorded for the separator in the 1
separator system and is shown in table 1 below:

Table 1: A table showing compositions of hexane in the vapour and liquid

outlet streams of the 1 separator system as well as the molar flow of liquid and
vapour streams and how it's affected by temperature
This shows that as the temperature increases the vapour fraction of hexane in the
vapour stream decreases and the liquid fraction of octane in the liquid stream also
decreases meaning separation increases, however the molar flow of the vapour
stream also decreases. To maximise the hexane molar vapour fraction the
temperature needs to be decreased. However, if the temperature is decreased below
115oC, it no longer affects the molar fraction of the hexane molar vapour fraction.
Mariam Hussain

200603585
13

8.366631

14.68546
2
19.84234
4
24.03453
3
27.41820
3
30

Even though the vapour fraction of the vapour is at its maximum, there is no vapour
stream, so a compromise needs to be made between the vapour fraction of hexane
and the molar flow of the vapour product.

However, if you consider the hexane molar flow of the outlet streams of the
separator, it can help the decision of selecting the temperature. This graph is shown
in figure 9:

Figure 9: A graph showing the effect of the temperature of inlet stream on molar
flow of hexane in liquid and vapour streams

Mariam Hussain

200603585
14

This graph shows that the molar flow of hexane in the vapour is maximum at
temperatures of 128oC and above (a plateau is reached at 129oC). So, at higher
temperatures rate of hexane separated is increased.

Following this, a sensitivity analysis was carried out for the effects on changing the
pressure of the inlet and hence outlet streams for the one separator system:

Pressur
e, kPa

Vapour
fraction of
hexane

liquid
fraction of
hexane

200

0.4024

Vapour
product
molar
flow,
kMol/hr
0.2003
49.31

liquid
product
molar
flow,
kMol/hr
50.69

Vapour
fractio
n of
Octane

liquid
fractio
n of
Octan
e
0.1988
0.398
5

molar flow
of hexane in
vapour,
kMol/hr

201

0.4061

0.2031

47.72

52.28

0.1961

0.394
8

19.379092

202

0.4098

0.2059

46.14

53.86

0.1935

0.391
2

18.908172

203

0.4135

0.2088

44.56

55.44

0.1909

0.287
7

18.42556

19.842344

Table 2: A table showing compositions of hexane in the vapour and liquid

outlet streams of the 1 separator system as well as the molar flow of liquid and
vapour streams
This shows that as pressure increases, the vapour fraction of hexane increases, and
the molar fraction of octane in the liquid outlet increases meaning separation
increases, however the molar flow of the vapour product decreases. At 226 kPa
pressure, the vapour fraction of hexane reaches its maximum, so separation is
maximised however, at this pressure, the molar flow is zero so a compromise is
needed between maximum separation and molar flow rate of vapour.
However, if you consider the hexane molar flow of the outlet streams of the
separator, it can help the decision of selecting the pressure. This graph is shown in
figure 10:
Mariam Hussain

200603585
15

Figure 10:A graph showing the effect of pressure of inlet on molar flow of
hexane in vapour and liquid streams
So, as pressure increases, molar flow rate of hexane in the vapor outlet stream
decreases and the maximum molar flow rate is at a pressure of 174 kPa and if the
pressure is decreased below this point, it has no effect on the molar flow rate of
hexane in the vapour stream.

Mariam Hussain

200603585
16

REFERENCES
ASPENTECH, 2012a, ASPEN HYSYS Petroleum refining, [online], Available from:
http://www.aspentech.com/products/aspen-refsys.aspx [Accessed 12/11/2012]

ASPENTECH, 2012b, ASPEN HYSYS Dynamics, [online], Available from:

http://www.aspentech.com/products/aspen-hysys-dynamics.aspx [Accessed
12/11/2012]

ELMHURST, 2003, BOILING POINTS AND STRUCTURES OF HYDROCARBONS,

[online], [Accessed 12/11/2012] Available from:
http://www.elmhurst.edu/~chm/vchembook/501hcboilingpts.html [Accessed
12/11/2012]

PRESSURECHEMICALCO, 2011, Distillation Capabilities , [online], Available from:

http://www.presschem.com/distillation.htm [Accessed 12/11/2012]

RICHARDS, 2001, Chapters 3: equations of state, [pdf], [online] Available from:

http://www.swinburne.edu.au/ict/research/cms/documents/disertations/yswChap3.pdf
[Accessed 12/11/2012]

Mariam Hussain

200603585
17