ABSTRACT/ SUMMARY.

Vapour-Liquid Equilibrium Unit is specially designed to investigate the relationship

between vapour and liquid at equilibrium for any binary system as well as for multipurpose
component system. This lab was performed primarily to investigate the relationship between
vapour and liquid by constructing an equilibrium curve for the methanol-water system at
atmospheric pressure. This experiment was started by feeding 0.1 L methanol and water into
the evaporator through valve V1. The V1 was immediately closed. The quantity of methanol
was added until its volume was equal to the volume of water which was 3.0 L. Then, the
temperature controller TIC-01 is set to about 100C. The mixture of methanol and water was
heated until boiled. The vapour mixture was raised up and it was cooled down by the
condenser at the top of evaporator. When all the temperature and pressure had been stabilized,
it was then collected from the unit. The collected samples were analyzed by digital
refractometer in order to determine its composition. The equilibrium curve was plotted. The
result showed that at atmospheric pressure, the vapour and liquid possessed linear
relationship. The objective of this experiment was finally achieved and this experiment was
considered success.

INTRODUCTION.
Vapour-Liquid Equilibrium Unit is a unit that is specially designed so as to investigate
the relationship between the vapour and liquid at equilibrium for any binary system and also
for any multi-component system.The unit may be run at atmospheric pressure or at any
elevated pressure. The unit consists of a stainless steel evaporator that is fitted with electrical
heater and electronic sensors for the measurement of pressure and temperature of liquid and
vapour (Solution Engineering, n.d).
Moreover, a stainless steel coil type heat exchanger is mounted at the top of the
evaporator. It is also equipped with digital displays that mainly aimed at assisting in
monitoring the temperature and pressure of the vapour in vessel. in addition, the equilibrium
temperature is primarily adjusted by using the temperature controller (Solution Engineering,
n.d). This appliance is suited with pressure relief valve for safety purpose. This unit also is
well insulated in order to minimize the heat losses (Solution Engineering, n.d)..
Apart from that, vapour-liquid equilibrium is important for many engineering
application (Foxit Reader, 2010). Moreover, the thermodynamic basis for phase equilibrium is
quite similar to the chemical equilibrium, as claimed by Foxit Readers report concluded in
2010.

AIM.
This experiment is mainly aimed at finding the relationship between vapour and liquid by
constructing an equilibrium curve for methanol-water system at atmospheric pressure.
THEORY.
In this experiment, the concept of vapour-liquid equilibrium is recognized by
generating vapour-liquid equilibrium data for methanol-water system at constant pressure. By
definition, an ideal solution is one by which the vapour pressure of a particular component is
said to be proportional to the mole fraction of that component in the liquid phase over the
entire range of mole fraction (http://www.colby.edu).
The compositions are presented in mole fractions of the more volatile component.
Equilibrium compositions are functions of temperature and pressure. Hence, the data are
obtained based on the isothermal or isobaric condition.

It has been found that in a very dilute solution, the vapour pressure of solvent (major
component) is proportional to the mole fraction, X of the solvent (Foxit Reader, 2010).
Let we consider;
Xi- mole fraction of component i in the liquid phase
Yi - mole fraction of component i in the vapor phase
According to the Raoults Law, it states that for any component i, the partial pressure pi=yip
equals the vapour pressure of pure component i multiplied by its mole fraction xi in the liquid
phase, that is,
Raoults Law : yip=xipsat(T)

eq.1

In Raoults law, the thermodynamic deviation is important as it can be generalized to the nonideal case (Foxit Reader, 2010). We may start from the general VLE condition g,i = l,i in
(eq. 1), which states that the chemical potential (which is equal to Gibbs energy) for each

component is the same in both phases at the given p and T. Now, the Gibbs energy is a state
function, and another route for taking component i from the liquid to the vapour phase can be
considered, consisting of four steps (all at temperature T): First, take the component I out of
liquid mixture. Then, the change in chemical potential for the unmixing is i,1 = RT ln ai
where the activity is ai = ixi. For an ideal liquid mixture, the activity coefficient is 1, i = 1.
Secondly, take the pure component as liquid from pressure p to the saturation pressure
xipsat(T). Since the liquid volume is small, this gives a very small change in chemical
potential. It is known as the Poynting factor, which we neglect, where i,2 0.
Thirdly, evaporate the pure component at T and xipsat(T). Since we have equilibrium
(G = 0), there is no change in the chemical potential, i,3 = 0. In the gas phase, go from
pure component at pressure xipsat(T) to a mixture at p where the partial pressure is pi. Since
the initial and final state are in equilibrium, the sum of the change in chemical potential for
these four steps should be zero the formula derive
RT ln xi + RT ln(pi/pisati (T)) = 0
Then, the Raoults Law follows.
The relationship between the vapour pressure and the temperature of pure substance can be
represented by the Antoine Equation (Darren Duncan, 2014). The expression is shown as
follows:

Log P =

And it can be transformed into this temperature explicit form;

T=

, where P is the absolute vapour pressure of the substance.

T is the temperature of the substance. A, B, C are substance-specific coefficient. While Log is

typically Log10.
A simpler form of equation with only two coefficients is sometimes used

which can be transformed into

References
SOLUTION ENGINEERING. (n.d). Vapour Liquid Equilibrium Unit: Solution Engineering
Sdn. Bhd. Retrieved from http://www.solution.com.my/pdf/BP16(A4).pdf
Foxit

Reader. (2010).

VLE

for

Ideal

Mixture: Raoults Law.

Retrieved from

http://www.nt.ntnu.no/users/skoge/septek/lectures/flash_from_skogestad_book.pdf
Darren

Duncan.

(2014).

Antoine

http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Antoine_equation

Equation:

Retrieved

from