[6]

6.

Ex/Ch.E/T/311/4/2011(S)

B ACHELOR OF CHEMICAL E NGINEERING

E XAMINATION, 2011

a) Styrene, a tonnage organic chemical used in the production

of molding resins and rubbers, is produced by catalytic
dehydrogenation of ethyl benzene following by separation of

( 3rd Year, 1st Semester, Supplementary )

the product by distillation. A fractionating column receives

SEPARATION P ROCESSES I

an equimolar mixture of styrene and ethyl benzene at a rate

Time : Three hours

of 120 kmol/h. the purity of the top product (ethyl benzene)

( 50 marks for each Part )

and that of bottom product (styrene) must not be less than

Use a separate Answer-Script for each Part

98% and 99.5%, respectively.

PART - I

Determine
i)

Full Marks : 100

Answer any two questions.

the minimum external reflux ratio,

Assume any missing data

ii) the minimum number of ideal trays required,

1.

The LLE data for furfural-formic acid-water system is given

iii) the number of ideal trays and feed tray location if the

below in mole %.

actual reflux ratio is twice the minimum and feed is

Phase 1

Phase 2

Furfural formic acid water

Furfural formic acid water

saturated liquid and

iv) Vapour load in the condenser.
The equilibrium data at operating pressure are as follows :
x 0 0 078 0 115 0 24 0 335 0 46 0 755 0 965 1
y 0 0 12 0 162 0 318 0 405 0 535 0 825 0 975 1

b) Describe in brief various equipments used for continuous

liquid-liquid extraction.
c) What are the important factors that determine the selection
of a batch distillation column for the separation of a liquid
mixture ?

16+6+3

94.6

0.3

5.1

9.5

2.3

88.2

91.8

1.7

6.5

11.4

5.1

83.5

88.7

3.2

8.1

12.8

6.9

80.3

80.4

6.9

12.7

16.9

10.6

72.5

73.8

9.4

16.8

20.4

12.6

67

59.3

13.3

27.4

32.3

15.1

52.6

46.2

15.1

38.7

46.2

15.1

38.7

The composition of the phases are in mole fraction

a) A water-formic acid mixture containing 25 mole% formic
acid enters the 1st stage of a 2-equilibrium stage cross flow
[ Turn over

[2]

[5]

cascade with flowrate of 10 mol/s. The extract phase is

i)

withdrawn from the 1st stage while the raffinate phase flows

composition of liquid left ?

to the 2nd stage where it is again contacted with furfural.

ii) If this same vaporization is done in a flash distillation

The flowrate of furfural to each stage is 15 mol/s. Determine

column and 40 kmol are distilled, what is the

the composition and flowrate of the streams leaving each

composition of the vapour distilled and the liquid left ?

stage.

The equilibrium data for n-pentane in the mixture of

b) If the feed and solvent phases were contacted in a single

n-pentane and n-heptane :

stage, what is the solute recovery from the above feed if

x 1 0.867
y 1 0.984

flowrate of solvent is 30 mol/s ?

c) In which case is solute recovery higher and why ?
2.

What is the average composition of vapour distilled and

25

0.594 0.398 0.254 0.145 0.059 0

0.925 0.836 0.701 0.521 0.271 0

b) A mixture weighing 1000 kg contains 23.5 wt% acetone and

Ethylene is to be stripped from ethylene-air mixture by

76.5 wt% water is to be extracted by 500 kg methyl isobutyl

adsorption. The process is to be carried out in a fluidized bed

ketone in a single stage extraction. Determine the amounts

contactor using fresh 13X zeolite. The flow rate and mole

and compositions of extract and raffinate phases.

fraction of ethylene in feed stream are 100 mol/h and 0.2

Equilibrium data for acetone-water-MIK system at 298 K

respectively. The process temperature and pressure are 293 K

temperature :

and 1 atm respectively.

Composition data (wt%)

Data : adsorption isotherm at 293 K.

x(molof C2 H4 / 0.23 1.47 2.24 3.33 6.85 9.56 13.52 20.57 38.26
kgofzeolite)
P ( kPa )

0.16 0.71 0.96 1.19 1.63 1.83

2.02

2.22

2.50

If the contactor is a countercurrent cascade, estimate using

graphical method and strong solution approximation.
a) Minimum adsorbent flow rate for achieving a 90% recovery
of ethylene.

15+10

MIK
98
93.2
77.3
65.5
46.2
12.4
3.23
2.12

Acetone
0.0
4.6
18.95
28.9
43.2
42.7
20.9
3.73

Water
2
2.33
3.86
5.53
10.7
45.0
75.8
94.2

2.20

97.8

Acetone distribution data (wt%)

Water phase
2.5
5.5
7.5
12.3
17.5
20.0
25.0
26.0

MIK phase
4.5
10.0
13.5
21.3
28.2
31.2
36.5
37.5
[ Turn over

[4]

[3]

PART - II

b) Number of stages if the adsorbent flowrate is 1.25 times the

minimum. Assume stage efficiency is 0.75.

Answer any two questions.

Assume any missing data.
4.

3.

a) A gas mixture containing 0.20 mole fraction of CO2 is to be

scrubbed to reduce its CO2 mole fraction to 0.002, using
15.3 wt% aqueous mono ethanolamine (MEA) solution at
o

25

The vapor liquid equilibrium data for a binary mixture A-B is

given below

x 0.05 0.10 0.20 0.30 0.40 0.50 0.60 0.70 0.80 0.90
y 0.08 0.16 0.30 0.43 0.54 0.64 0.72 0.80 0.88 0.94

25 C and 1000 mm Hg pressure. The components other than

CO2 in the gas mixture may be treated as inert. The MEA

where x and y are mole fraction of component A.

solution entering the tower counter-current mode, contains

The feed mixture (saturated liquid) contains 40 mol % A. It is to

0.46 mol of CO2 per mol of MEA in the solution. If the MEA

fractionated into product streams one containing 90 mole% A

used is 1.2 times the minimum, find the minimum MEA flow

and the other 5 mole%. The feed flowrate is 50 moles/s. A total

rate to get desired separation and number of theoretical

condenser is being used. Using Ponchon Savarit technique,

stages required for the separation. Assume the solution to be

determine

concentrated.
Pco2 ( mmHg)
CO2 (molpermolof
MEAsolution)

i)

2
7.5 10
20
30
40
50
60
70
0.475 0.50 0.51 0.53 0.55 0.565 0.575 0.58 0.582

and stripping factor and with increasing value of

absorption factor, how the ideal stage requirement in the

5.

ii) Number of stages in the column, if actual reflux ratio is 1.25

times the minimum

b) What are the physical significance of absorption factor

column will change ?

Minimum reflux ratio.

20+5

a) A mixture of 100 kmol which contains 60 mol% n-pentane

iii) Feed stage

iv) Reboiler and condenser load.
The enthalpy of liquid and vapor may be assumed to be constant
at 5000 kJ/mol and 40000 kJ/mol respectively for all
concentrations.

25

(A) and 40 mol% n-heptane(B) is vaporized at 101.32 kPa

pressure under differential conditions until 40 Kmol are
distilled.

[ Turn over