Choice of separator

Having made an initial specification for the reactor, attention is turned to separation of the reactor effluent. In addition, it might be necessary to carry out separation before the reactor to purify the feed. Whether before or after the reactor, the overall separation task normally must be broken down into a number of intermediate separation tasks. The first consideration is the choice of separator for the intermediate separation tasks. Later we shall consider how these separation tasks should be connected to the reactor. As with reactors, we shall concentrate on the choice of separator and not its detailed sizing. 

Despite these problems, a choice of separation system must be made and the design progressed further before it can be properly assessed. 

If distillation is the choice of separator, then some preliminary selection of the major design variables must be made to allow the design to proceed. The first decision is operating pressure. As pressure is raised,... 

Choice of separator. For a heterogeneous mixture, separation usually can be achieved by phase separation. Such phase separation normally should be carried out before any homogeneous separation. Phase separation tends to be easier and usually should be done first. 

The choice of separation method to be appHed to a particular system depends largely on the phase relations that can be developed by using various separative agents. Adsorption is usually considered to be a more complex operation than is the use of selective solvents in Hquid—Hquid extraction (see Extraction, liquid-liquid), extractive distillation, or azeotropic distillation (see Distillation, azeotropic and extractive). Consequentiy, adsorption is employed when it achieves higher selectivities than those obtained with solvents. 

The gas chromatograph (GC) resembles the MS in providing both qualitative and quantitative EGA but is significantly slower in operation. The interval between analyses is normally controlled by the retention time of the last component to be eluted from the column such delay may permit the occurrence of secondary reactions between primary products [162]. Several systems and their applications have been described [144,163— 167] sample withdrawal can be achieved [164] without the necessity for performing the reaction in an atmosphere of carrier gas. By suitable choice of separation column or combination of columns [162], it is possible to resolve species which are difficult to measure in a small low-resolution MS, e.g. H20, NH3, CH4, N2 and CO. Wiedemann [168] has made a critical comparison of results obtained by MS and GC techniques and adjudged the quality of data as being about equal. 

Complementary to the recommendations above concerning studies on chemical reactions are guidelines regarding the choice of separation processes (Agam, 1994) ... 

When choosing between different types of reactors, both continuous and batch reactors were considered from the point of view of the performance of the reactor (continuous plug-flow and ideal batch being equivalent in terms of residence time). If a batch reactor is chosen, it will often lead to a choice of separator for the reactor effluent that also operates in batch mode, although this is not always the case as intermediate storage can be used to overcome the variations with time. Batch separations will be dealt with in Chapter 14. 

Choice of Separator for Homogeneous Fluid Mixtures I - Distillation... 

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