Separation capacity

Used in virtually all organic chemistry analytical laboratories, gas chromatography has a powerful separation capacity. Using distillation as an analogy, the number of theoretical plates would vary from 100 for packed columns to 10 for 100-meter capillary columns as shown in Figure 2.1. 

Sedimentation Equipment. Centrifugal sedimentation equipment is usually characterized by limiting flow rates and theoretical settling capabihties. Feed rates in industrial appHcations may be dictated by Hquid handling capacities, separating capacities, or physical characteristics of the soHds. Sedimentation equipment performance is illustrated in Figure 8 on the basis of nominal clarified effluent flow rates and the appHcable values. The... 

As it is desirable that the separative capacity of the stage be independent of the concentration of the material with which it is operating, the terms in the equation involving the concentration are set equal to a constant, taken for convenience to be unity, and the separative capacity of a single stage operating with a cut of one-half is seen to be ... 

Thus, the separative capacity of a stage is directiy proportional to the stage upflow as well as to the square of the separation effected. 

Equivalent Theoretical Plate. The separative capacity of a theoretical plate in a continuous process can be obtained in the same manner. By equating the separative capacity of the unit to the net increase in value of the four streams handled (eq. 8) ... 

The separative capacity of the equivalent theoretical stage in the continuous process is seen to depend on the concentration difference between the countercurrent streams as well as on the concentration difference between the top and bottom of the stage. The separative capacity is zero when V is equal tojy or V is equal to x inspection shows that it attains a maximum value when V is equal to the arithmetic average of x andjy and that this maximum value... 

Application. In addition to providing a relatively simple means for estimating the production of separation cascades, the separative capacity is useful for solving some basic cascade design problems for example, the problem of determining the optimum size of the stripping section. 

It can be assumed that P,Jp, and for the cascade have been specified, and that the cost of feed and the cost per unit of separative work, the product of separative capacity and time, are known. The basic assumption is that the unit cost of separative work remains essentially constant for small changes ia the total plant size. The cost of the operation can then be expressed as the sum of the feed cost and cost of separative work ... 

The second term in brackets in equation 36 is the separative work produced per unit time, called the separative capacity of the cascade. It is a function only of the rates and concentrations of the separation task being performed, and its value can be calculated quite easily from a value balance about the cascade. The separative capacity, sometimes called the separative power, is a defined mathematical quantity. Its usefulness arises from the fact that it is directly proportional to the total flow in the cascade and, therefore, directly proportional to the amount of equipment required for the cascade, the power requirement of the cascade, and the cost of the cascade. The separative capacity can be calculated using either molar flows and mol fractions or mass flows and weight fractions. The common unit for measuring separative work is the separative work unit (SWU) which is obtained when the flows are measured in kilograms of uranium and the concentrations in weight fractions. 

The great utility of the separative capacity concept Hes in the fact that if the separative capacity of a single separation element can be deterrnined, perhaps from equations 7 or 10, then the total number of such identical elements required in an ideal cascade to perform a desired separation job is simply the ratio of the separative capacity of the cascade to that of the element. The concept of an ideal plant is useful because moderate departures from ideaUty do not appreciably affect the results. For example, if the upflow in a cascade is everywhere a factor of m times the ideal upflow, the actual total upflow... 

Sepa.ra.tive Capacity. An expression for the separative capacity of a single gaseous diffusion stage where the upflow rate is C mols per unit time, given ia equation 7, can be written as... 

Foi a veiy liigli quality baiiiei (p oo), the separative capacity of a stage having a mixing efficiency of 100% and operating at a cut of one-half would be ... 

If the power requirement of the gaseous diffusion process were no greater than the power required to recompress the stage upflow from the pressure on the low-pressure side of the barrier to that on the high-pressure side, then the power requirement of the stage would be Z RTLq (1 /r) for the case where the compression is performed isotherm ally. The power requirement per unit of separative capacity would then be given simply by the ratio... 

In 1985, owiag to the declining demand by the nuclear power industry for enriched uranium, the Oak Ridge gaseous diffusion plant was taken out of operation and, subsequently, was shut down. The U.S. gaseous diffusion plants at Portsmouth, Ohio and Paducah, Kentucky remain ia operation and have a separative capacity of 19.6 million SWU (separative work unit) per year which as of this writing is not fully utilized. 

The Archimedes number contains parameters that characterize the properties of the heterogeneous system and the criterion establishing the type of settling. The criterion of separation essentially establishes the separating capacity of a sedimentation machine. The product of these criteria is ... 

The principle of 2-D TLC separation is illustrated schematically in Figure 8.4. The multiplicative law for 2-D peak capacity emphasizes the tremendous increase in resolving power which can be achieved in theory, this method has a separating capacity of n, where n is the one-dimensional peak capacity (9). If this peak capacity is to be achieved, the selectivity of the mobile phases used in the two different directions must be complementary. 

Fractionation of components into polarity groups, and their optimized separation (followed by detection) by subsequent development steps increases the separating capacity of the chromatographic system. 

The separation capacity of a TLC method can be easily improved by use of a two-dimensional high performance TLC technique (2D HPTLC). Various plant essential oils (menthae, thymi, anisi, lavandulae, etc.) have been analysed by 2D TLC with florisil (magnesium silicate) as the adsorbent, using dichloromethane/ -heptane (4 6) in the first direction and ethyl acetate/n-heptane (1 9) in the second direction (69). 

A batch still corresponding to a total separation capacity equivalent to eight theoretical plates (seven plates plus the still) is used to separate a hydrocarbon charge containing four (A, B, C, D) simple-hydrocarbon components. Both the liquid and vapour dynamics of the column plates are neglected. Equilibrium data for the system is represented by constant relative volatility values. Constant molar overflow conditions again apply, as in BSTILL. The problem was originally formulated by Robinson (1975). 

Another approach to defining the separation capacity of a column is by its peak capacity (the number of peaks than can be resolved at any specific resolution, usually R, i, in a given separation time). For SEC the pe2dc capacity, PCgc, is given approximately by... 

Solvent optimization in reversed-phase liquid chromatography is commenced by selecting a binary mobile phase of the correct solvent strength to elute the seuaple with an acceptable range of capacity. factor values (1 < k <10 in general or 1 < k < 20 when a larger separation capacity is required). Transfer rules (section 4.6.1) are then used to calculate the composition of other isoeluotropic binary solvents with complementary selectivity. In practice, methanol, acetonitrile and tetrahydrofuran are chosen as the selectivity adjusting solvents blended in different... 

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