Tray Efficiency in Multicomponent Separations

Component efficiencies. In binary mixtures, the efficiencies of each of the two components are identical. In multicomponent separations, component efficiencies are all different because 

Each component has a different diffusivity, both in the vapor and in the liquid. 

In a multicomponent mixture, the diffusion rate of a component depends not only on its own concentration in the mixture, but also on the concentration of other components. This may lead to coupling and interaction of the mass transfer among various components. Some examples are (192) 

The effective slope of the equilibrium curve, m, and therefore A. [Eq. (7.5)1 differs for each component. Therefore, each component has a different ratio of gas-phase resistance to liquid-phase resistance [Eq. (7.13)] and a different ratio of overall column efficiency to Murphree tray efficiency [Eq. (7.4)]. 

Design practice. A computational case study by Toor and Burchard (192) demonstrates that accounting for the above factors can alter the 

---