Two liquid phases

Whereas it is easy to estimate the contingency for a single liquid phase, it is rather difficult to estimate it for two liquid phases, e.g., liquid hydrocarbon 

A three-phase separator, operating at 4000 kPaG and 25°C, has a total lengffi (T/T) of 8000 mm and an inner diameter of 2134 mm. The normal liquid level (NLL) of the condensate is 900 mm from ffie bottom of the vessel. The vessel PRV is to be designed for a fire contingency based on ffie following informahon  

The HYSYS simulation package is used for general flash calculation and to estimate the physical properties. 

Process engineering and design using Visual Basic 

The HC liqtdd has a high boiling range, and the physical properties are to be obtained at 5 mol% vaporization. The water stream is vaporized up to 100%. 

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In vapor-liquid equilibria, it is relatively easy to start the iteration because assumption of ideal behavior (Raoult s law) provides a reasonable zeroth approximation. By contrast, there is no obvious corresponding method to start the iteration calculation for liquid-liquid equilibria. Further, when two liquid phases are present, we must calculate for each component activity coefficients in two phases since these are often strongly nonlinear functions of compositions, liquid-liquid equilibrium calculations are highly sensitive to small changes in composition. In vapor-liquid equilibria at modest pressures, this sensitivity is lower because vapor-phase fugacity coefficients are usually close to unity and only weak functions of composition. For liquid-liquid equilibria, it is therefore more difficult to construct a numerical iteration procedure that converges both rapidly and consistently. 

Using the ternary tie-line data and the binary VLE data for the miscible binary pairs, the optimum binary parameters are obtained for each ternary of the type 1-2-i for i = 3. .. m. This results in multiple sets of the parameters for the 1-2 binary, since this binary occurs in each of the ternaries containing two liquid phases. To determine a single set of parameters to represent the 1-2 binary system, the values obtained from initial data reduction of each of the ternary systems are plotted with their approximate confidence ellipses. We choose a single optimum set from the intersection of the confidence ellipses. Finally, with the parameters for the 1-2 binary set at their optimum value, the parameters are adjusted for the remaining miscible binary in each ternary, i.e. the parameters for the 2-i binary system in each ternary of the type 1-2-i for i = 3. .. m. This adjustment is made, again, using the ternary tie-line data and binary VLE data. 

Equation (7-8). However, for liquid-liquid equilibria, the equilibrium ratios are strong functions of both phase compositions. The system is thus far more difficult to solve than the superficially similar system of equations for the isothermal vapor-liquid flash. In fact, some of the arguments leading to the selection of the Rachford-Rice form for Equation (7-17) do not apply strictly in the case of two liquid phases. Nevertheless, this form does avoid spurious roots at a = 0 or 1 and has been shown, by extensive experience, to be marltedly superior to alternatives. 

In the first class, azeotropic distillation, the extraneous mass-separating agent is relatively volatile and is known as an entrainer. This entrainer forms either a low-boiling binary azeotrope with one of the keys or, more often, a ternary azeotrope containing both keys. The latter kind of operation is feasible only if condensation of the overhead vapor results in two liquid phases, one of which contains the bulk of one of the key components and the other contains the bulk of the entrainer. A t3q)ical scheme is shown in Fig. 3.10. The mixture (A -I- B) is fed to the column, and relatively pure A is taken from the column bottoms. A ternary azeotrope distilled overhead is condensed and separated into two liquid layers in the decanter. One layer contains a mixture of A -I- entrainer which is returned as reflux. The other layer contains relatively pure B. If the B layer contains a significant amount of entrainer, then this layer may need to be fed to an additional column to separate and recycle the entrainer and produce pure B. 

It was made clear in Chapter II that the surface tension is a definite and accurately measurable property of the interface between two liquid phases. Moreover, its value is very rapidly established in pure substances of ordinary viscosity dynamic methods indicate that a normal surface tension is established within a millisecond and probably sooner [1], In this chapter it is thus appropriate to discuss the thermodynamic basis for surface tension and to develop equations for the surface tension of single- and multiple-component systems. We begin with thermodynamics and structure of single-component interfaces and expand our discussion to solutions in Sections III-4 and III-5. 

It was pointed out in Section XIII-4A that if the contact angle between a solid particle and two liquid phases is finite, a stable position for the particle is at the liquid-liquid interface. Coalescence is inhibited because it takes work to displace the particle from the interface. In addition, one can account for the type of emulsion that is formed, 0/W or W/O, simply in terms of the contact angle value. As illustrated in Fig. XIV-7, the bulk of the particle will lie in that liquid that most nearly wets it, and by what seems to be a correct application of the early oriented wedge" principle (see Ref. 48), this liquid should then constitute the outer phase. Furthermore, the action of surfactants should be predictable in terms of their effect on the contact angle. This was, indeed, found to be the case in a study by Schulman and Leja [49] on the stabilization of emulsions by barium sulfate. 

In order to describe any electrochemical cell a convention is required for writing down the cells, such as the concentration cell described above. This convention should establish clearly where the boundaries between the different phases exist and, also, what the overall cell reaction is. It is now standard to use vertical lines to delineate phase boundaries, such as those between a solid and a liquid or between two innniscible liquids. The junction between two miscible liquids, which might be maintained by the use of a porous glass frit, is represented by a single vertical dashed line, j, and two dashed lines, jj, are used to indicate two liquid phases... 

Many pairs of partially miscible liquids possess neither a lower nor an upper C.S.T. for reasons outlined in the previous paragraph. Thus consider the two liquid phases from the two components water and diethyl ether. Upon cooling the system at constant pressure, a point will be reached when a third phase, ice, will form, thus rendering the production of a lower C.S.T. impossible, likewise, if the temperature of the two layers is raised, the critical point for the ether rich layer will be reached while the two liquid phases have different compositions. Above the critical point the ether-rich layer will be converted into vapour, and hence the system will be convert into a water rich liquid and an ether rich vapour the upper C.S.T. cannot therefore be attained. 

An example of heterogeneous-azeotrope formation is shown in Fig. 13-13 for the water-normal butanol system at 101.3 kPa. At liquid compositions between 0 and 3 mole percent butanol and between 40 and 100 mole percent butanol, the liquid phase is homogeneous. Phase sphtting into two separate liquid phases (one with 3 mole percent butanol and the other with 40 mole percent butanol) occurs for any overall hquid composition between 3 and 40 mole percent butanol. A miuimum-boihug heterogeneous azeotrope occurs at 92°C (198°F) when the vapor composition and the over l composition of the two liquid phases are 75 mole percent butanol. 

Three types of binary equilibrium cui ves are shown in Fig. 13-27. The y-x diagram is almost always plotted for the component that is the more volatile (denoted by the subscript 1) in the region where distillation is to take place. Cui ve A shows the most usual case, in which component 1 remains more volatile over the entire composition range. Cui ve B is typical of many systems (ethanol-water, for example) in which the component that is more volatile at lowvalues of X becomes less volatile than the other component at high values of X. The vapor and liquid compositions are identical for the homogeneous azeotrope where cui ve B crosses the 45° diagonal. A heterogeneous azeotrope is formed with two liquid phases by cui ve C,... 

FIG. 13-27 Typical binary eqiiilihriiim curves. Curve A, system with normal volatility. Curve B, system with homogeneous azeotrope (one liquid phase). Curve C, system with heterogeneous azeotrope (two liquid phases in eqiiilih-riiim with one vapor phase). 

The formation of two liquid phases within some temperature range for close-boihng mixtures is generally an indication that the system... 

The separation of components by liquid-liquid extraction depends primarily on the thermodynamic equilibrium partition of those components between the two liquid phases. Knowledge of these partition relationships is essential for selecting the ratio or extraction solvent to feed that enters an extraction process and for evaluating the mass-transfer rates or theoretical stage efficiencies achieved in process equipment. Since two liquid phases that are immiscible are used, the thermodynamic equilibrium involves considerable evaluation of nonideal solutions. In the simplest case a feed solvent F contains a solute that is to be transferred into an extraction solvent S. 

Selectivity. The relative separation, or selectivity, Ot of a solvent is the ratio of two components in the extraction-solvent phase divided by the ratio of the same components in the feed-solvent phase. The separation power of a hquid-liquid system is governed by the deviation of Ot from unity, analogous to relative volatility in distillation. A relative separation Ot of 1.0 gives no separation of the components between the two liquid phases. Dilute solute concentrations generally give the highest relative separation factors. 

By modeling the substance behavior at the interface of two liquid phases, in particular, stationary and mobile phases in liquid chromatography, 1-octanol - water partition coefficients or partition coefficients in... 

When the two liquid phases are in relative motion, the mass transfer coefficients in eidrer phase must be related to die dynamical properties of the liquids. The boundary layer thicknesses are related to the Reynolds number, and the diffusive Uansfer to the Schmidt number. Another complication is that such a boundaty cannot in many circumstances be regarded as a simple planar interface, but eddies of material are U ansported to the interface from the bulk of each liquid which change the concenuation profile normal to the interface. In the simple isothermal model there is no need to take account of this fact, but in most indusuial chcumstances the two liquids are not in an isothermal system, but in one in which there is a temperature gradient. The simple stationary mass U ansfer model must therefore be replaced by an eddy mass U ansfer which takes account of this surface replenishment. 

Lube oil extraction plants often use phenol as solvent. Phenol is used because of its solvent power with a wide range of feed stocks and its ease of recovery. Phenol preferentially dissolves aromatic-type hydrocarbons from the feed stock and improves its oxidation stability and to some extent its color. Phenol extraction can be used over the entire viscosity range of lube distillates and deasphalted oils. The phenol solvent extraction separation is primarily by molecular type or composition. In order to accomplish a separation by solvent extraction, it is necessary that two liquid phases be present. In phenol solvent extraction of lubricating oils these two phases are an oil-rich phase and a phenol-rich phase. Tne oil-rich phase or raffinate solution consists of the "treated" oil from which undesirable naphthenic and aromatic components have been removed plus some dissolved phenol. The phenol-rich phase or extract solution consists mainly of the bulk of the phenol plus the undesirable components removed from the oil feed. The oil materials remaining... 

In contrast to reactors involving the use of solid catalyst phases, there are reactors that use two liquid phases. An example is the... 

Aromatic steroids are virtually insoluble in liquid ammonia and a cosolvent must be added to solubilize them or reduction will not occur. Ether, ethylene glycol dimethyl ether, dioxane and tetrahydrofuran have been used and, of these, tetrahydrofuran is the preferred solvent. Although dioxane is often a better solvent for steroids at room temperature, it freezes at 12° and its solvent effectiveness in ammonia is diminished. Tetrahydrofuran is infinitely miscible with liquid ammonia, but the addition of lithium to a 1 1 mixture causes the separation of two liquid phases, one blue and one colorless, together with the separation of a lithium-ammonia bronze phase. Thus tetrahydrofuran and lithium depress the solubilities of each other in ammonia. A tetrahydrofuran-ammonia mixture containing much over 50 % of tetrahydrofuran does not become blue when lithium is added. In general, a 1 1 ratio of ammonia to organic solvents represents a reasonable compromise between maximum solubility of steroid and dissolution of the metal with ionization. 

Figure 8-7. System with heterogeneous azeotrope-two liquid phases in the equilibrium with one vapor phase. Used by permission. Smith, B.D., Design of Equilibrium Stage Processes, McGraw-Hiii, New York (1963), all rights reserved.

Steam Distillation—Continuous Flash, Two Liquid Phases, Multicomponent and Binary... 

All points on the two tangents HRi, HR2, to the curve of solutions represent heterogeneous systems composed of solid hydrate in contact with solutions. If the curve between Ri and R2 is convex the heterogeneous systems are stable, and inversely. At a given temperature and pressure the hydrate can be in equilibrium with two liquid phases of different composition, one containing relatively more, the other relatively less, salt than the hydrate. With rise of temperature the form of the curve and the altitude of H change ... 

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