Binary Distillation Columns

Equimolar Counterdiffusion in Binary Cases. If the flux of A is balanced by an equal flux of B in the opposite direction (frequently encountered in binary distillation columns), there is no net flow through the film and like is directly given by Fick s law. In an ideal gas, where the diffusivity can be shown to be independent of concentration, integration of Fick s law leads to a linear concentration profile through the film and to the following expression where (P/RT)y is substituted for... 

Note that these values for theoretical trays do contain corrections in overall efficiency, and hence are not the actual trays for the binary distillation column. Efficiencies generally run 50-60% for systems of this type which will yield a column of actual trays almost twice the theoretical at the operating reflux. 

The conlinuous binary distillation column of Fig. 3.60 follows the same general representation as that used previously in Fig. 3.58. The modelling approach again follows closely that of Luyben (1973, 1990). 

Figure 3.60. Model representation of a continuous binary distillation column. PC is the cooling water controller, LC the reflux controller.

Consider the material balance for a simple binary distillation column. A simple column has one feed, two products, one reboiler and one condenser. Such a column is shown in Figure 9.5. An overall material balance can be written as ... 

CONSTILL - Continuous Binary Distillation Column System... 

A continuous binary distillation column is represented below. The column is shown in Fig. 1 as consisting of eight theoretical plates, but the number of plates in the column may be changed, since the MADONNA program is written in array form. 

Continuous Binary Distillation Column 496 Controller Tuning Problem 427 Three-Stage Reactor Cascade with Countercurrent Cooling 287... 

Example 1.5. For a binary distillation column (see Fig. 1.6), load disturbance variables might include feed flow rate and feed composition. Reflux, steam, cooling water, distillate, and bottoms flow rates might be the manipulated variables. Controlled variables might be distillate product composition, bottoms product composition, column pressure, base liquid level, and reflux drum liquid level. The uncontrolled variables would include the compositions and temperatures on aU the trays. Note that one physical stream may be considered to contain many variables ... 

The digital simulation of a distillation column is fairly straightforward. The main complication is the large number of ODEs and algebraic equations that must be solved. We will illustrate the procedure first with the simplified binary distillation column for which we developed the equations in Chap. 3 (Sec. 3.11). Equimolal overflow, constant relative volatility, and theoretical plates have been assumed. There are two ODEs per tray (a total continuity equation and a light component continuity equation) and two algebraic equations per tray (a vapor-liquid phase equilibrium relationship and a liquid-hydraulic relationship). 

Simulate the ideal binary distillation column of Sec. 5.4, using Euler and fourth-order Runge-Kutta and compare computation times. 

Greg Shinskey has suggested that the steadystate distillate and bottoms compositions in a binary distillation column can be approximately related by... 

This illustrative example is taken from the recent work on interaction of design and control by Luyben and Floudas (1994a) and considers the design of a binary distillation column which separates a saturated liquid feed mixture into distillate and bottoms products of specified purity. The objectives are the determination of the number of trays, reflux ratio, flow rates, and compositions in the distillation column that minimize the total annual cost. Figure (1.1) shows a superstructure for the binary distillation column. 

RGA Example To illustrate use of the RGA method, consider the following steady-state version of a transfer function model for a pilot-scale, methanol-water distillation column (Wood and Berry, "Terminal Composition Control of a Binary Distillation Column, Chem. Eng. Sci., 28 1707, 1973) Kn = 12.8, Ku = -18.9, K21 = 6.6, and K22 = —19.4. It follows that X = 2 and... 

Y.-L Hwang, On the nonlinear wave theory for dynamics of binary distillation columns. 

Bilec, R. and Wood, R. K., "Multivariable Frequency Domain Controller Design for a Binary Distillation Column," AIChE National Meeting, Houston, Texas, April, 1979. 

The equipartition principle is mainly used to investigate binary distillation columns, and should be extended to multicomponent and nonideal mixtures. One should also account for the coupling between driving forces since heat and mass transfer coupling may be considerable and should not be neglected especially in diabatic columns. 

Example 5.14 Optimal feed state for a binary distillation Consider a binary distillation column with specified distillate and bottom compositions. The feed composition is 30 mol% of the more volatile component. Investigate the problem of conditioning the feed. Should the feed be in saturated liquid or saturated vapor state ... 

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