Lower-pressure separator

Hollow-fiber membranes may be run with shell-side or tube-side feed, cocurrent, countercurrent or in the case of shell-side feed and two end permeate collection, co- and countercurrent. Not shown is the scheme for feed inside the fiber, common practice in lower-pressure separations such as air. 

It should be clear from the description of LTX units in Chapter 5 that the lower pressure separator in an LTX unit is a simple form of cold-feed condensate stabilizer. In the cold, upper portion of the separator some of the intermediate hydrocarbon components condense. In the hot, lower portion some of the lighter components flash. 

Capillary membrane modules are not as inexpensive or compact as hollow fine fiber modules, but are still very economical. Their principal drawback is the limited pressure differential the fibers can support, typically not more than 10 to 15 bar. This limitation means capillary modules cannot be used at the high pressures needed for hydrogen or natural-gas processing applications. However, capillary modules are ideally suited to lower-pressure separations, such as nitrogen from air or air dehydration. In these applications, capillary modules have essentially the entire market. 

Gas Separation. During the 1980s, gas separation using membranes became a commercially important process the size of this appHcation is stiH increasing rapidly. In gas separation, one of the components of the feed permeates a permselective membrane at a much higher rate than the others. The driving force is the pressure difference between the pressurized feed gas and the lower pressure permeate. 

PWRs operate differendy from BWRs. In PWRs, no boiling takes place in the primary heat-transfer loop. Instead, only heating of highly pressurized water occurs. In a separate heat-exchanger vessel, heat is transferred from the pressurized water circuit to a secondary water circuit that operates at a lower pressure and therefore enables boiling. Because of thermal transfer limitations, ultimate steam conditions in PWR power plants ate similar to those in BWR plants. For this reason, materials used in nuclear plant steam turbines and piping must be more resistant to erosion and thermal stresses than those used in conventional units. 

Lower Pressure. Usually, relative volatdity increases as pressure drops. For some systems, a 1% drop in absolute pressure cuts the requited reflux by 0.5%. Again, if operating at reduced pressure looks promising, the process can be evaluated by simulation. In a complete study of distillation processes, other questions that need to be asked include. Is the separation necessary Is the purity necessary Are there any recycles that could be eliminated Can the products be sent directly to downstream units, thereby eliminating intermediate heating and cooling ... 

Pressures Turboexpanders ean be designed to operate at up to 3,000 psi and higher inlet pressures as required by eonditions. Expansion pressure ratios ean also be adjusted for eaeh proeess over a wide range. A majority of effieient expansion ratios are below 5 1, although pressure ratios up to 10 1 ean be aeeommodated with reasonable effieieney. Smaller, lower pressure units are popular for air separation and helium liquefaetion. Intermediate pressure (100-1,000 psi) and high pressure expanders (1,000-3,000 psi) are widely used in natural gas proeessing and industrial gas liquefaetion. 

These are azeotropic points where the azeotropes occur. In other words, azeotropic systems give rise to VLE plots where the equilibrium curves crosses the diagonals. Both plots are however, obtained from homogenous azeotropic systems. An azeotrope that contains one liquid phase in contact with vapor is called a homogenous azeotrope. A homogenous azeotrope carmot be separated by conventional distillation. However, vacuum distillation may be used as the lower pressures can shift the azeotropic point. Alternatively, an additional substance may added to shift the azeotropic point to a more favorable position. When this additional component appears in appreciable amounts at the top of the column, the operation is referred to as an azeotropic distillation. When the additional component appears mostly at the bottom of the column, the operation is called extractive distillation. 

The heated oil is flashed into the VPS flash zone where vapor and liquid separate. Split between distillate and bottoms depends on flash zone temperature and pressure. Separation of vapor and liquid in the flash zone is incomplete, since some lower boiliug sidestream components are present in the liquid while bottoms components are entrained in the vapor. The liquid from the flash zone is steam stripped in the bottom section of the VPS to remove the lower boiling components. 

The correction for pressure drop be calculated from the equation given below. This correlation indicates that a higher pressure drop would result in a finer separation and lower pressure drop in a coarser separation. 

Suspended materials and macromolecules can be separated from a waste stream using a membrane and pressure differential, called Ultrafiltration. This method uses a lower pressure differential than reverse osmosis and doesn t rely on overcoming... 

The header is rated the same as the highest pressure rated equipment connected to it or it is fitted with a safety valve if designed for a lower pressure rating. Sections of the header, separated by check valves, may be designed for different pressure ratings, but safety valve protection is still required for the lower-rated sections, unless the header cannot be overpressured to more than 1.5 times the design pressure. 

In summary, a colder separation temperature removes more liquid from the gas stream adequate bottom heating melts the hydrates and revaporizes the lighter components so they may rejoin the sales gas instead of remaining in liquid form to be flashed off at lower pressure and cold refluxing recondenscs the heavy components that may also have been vaporized in the warming process and prevents their loss to the gas stream. 

Do not use a lower pressure than necessary, because separation efficiency and throughput decrease as pressure decreases. 

Capacity and separation gains due to lower pressure drop of packing. Pressure drop of packing is typically 3 to 5 times lower than that of trays. 

Expansion turbines are related in many design features to the centrifugal compressor. The key exception being that the turbine receives a high pressure gas for expansion and power recovery to a lower pressure and is usually accompanied by the recovery of the energy from the expansion. For example, applications can be (1) air separation plants (2) natural gas expansion and liquefaction (for gas let-down in pipeline transmission to replace throttle valves where no... 

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