CHE 3134:

Separation Processes
Instructor : Dr. Wendi Guo
Meeting time: W 4:00-5:15 PM
Week 1 Meeting 1
27 January 2016

Flash Distillation
Flash distillation involves the rapid vaporization (partial vaporization ) of a pressured feed
upon expansion into a flash chamber (or drum through a nozzle or throttling valve.

Equilibrium is assumed to
be established in the drum
Figure 2-1 Flash distillation system
From Separation Process Engineering, Third Edition by Phillip C. Wankat
(ISBN: 0131382276) Copyright 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

 Pressure/temperature choices:
At the feed pressure PF, the feed should be below its boiling
point and remain a liquid
At the pressure of the flash drum, Pdrum , the contents should be
above the boiling point for the feed so some vaporizes.

Flash Vaporization for a Binary Mixture

Note: the text book typically write a single mole fraction to describe the
composition of liquid & vapor in a binary system and usually for the most
volatile component.

Preliminaries: We can write these mole fraction in terms of K values

(distribution coefficients) to relate them to equilibrium data.
+ = 1

+ = 1

For :

 Material Balance
Energy Balance

Material Balance

Operating line equation

= +

Material Balance
Operating line equation

= +

The fraction vaporized

The liquid fraction =

= =

= 0

=
=

1
1

 In practice, rather than use the slope, we might instead determine at

least two points that should fall on the operating line.
Ex:

the y-intercept , X-intercept , x=y point on the operating line

X-intercept

Y-intercept
y=x point

(y = 0)
=0

=
=

==

Equilibrium Line

Figure 2-8 McCabe-Thiele diagram for binary flash distillation; illustrated for Example 2-1
From Separation Process Engineering, Third Edition by Phillip C. Wankat
(ISBN: 0131382276) Copyright 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Limit of the operating line

From the slope of the operating line,

note that we
can use examine the entire range of accessible
operating conditions, if the feed composition is know
Slope L/V

100% vapor, L=0

=0

100% liquid, V=0

Back
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Energy Balance

( + )
=
( + )

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Comments:
The choice of operating parameters (degree of freedom) effects the
case of solution of the problem.
Ex. If ( ) are set, the choice if
another variable to describe the condition in the flash drum
( , , , , ) decouples the material and energy balance
equations and they can be solved separately- the so called
Sequential Solution Procedure in your book (Page,23).

If another feed parameter is specified, the equations must be solved

simultaneously (page 28). For simultaneous case, the solution can
often be carried out conveniently on an enthalpy-composition
diagram

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If the feed temperature, (i.e., the temperature after the heat exchanger), is
specified, the feed enthalpy can be determined from

Figure 2-9 Binary flash calculation in enthalpy-composition diagram

From Separation Process Engineering, Third Edition by Phillip C. Wankat
(ISBN: 0131382276) Copyright 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Multicomponent Flash Distillation

Analytical Solution---The solutions of multicomponent
flash distillation can be conveniently formulated in terms
of distribution coefficients, K s.
For ideal gas, K s are independent of composition and
Equilibrium
= (, ) i.e., like the DePrister Chart

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 Compositions are constrained by

= 1 ()

& = 1 ()

Material Balance gives

= +

=+
( )
=
( )

Energy Balance
= +

Find ,
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1+( 1)

&

1+( 1)

If / is know, can be easily calculated at a

given temperature and pressure.
These equations must obey the constraints
=

= 1 & =

1+( 1)

1+( 1)

=1

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When you only have temperature or pressure > trial and error

These equations are typically solved by trial and error or with

a root finding technique.
For better convergence properties, these equations are often
used in a different form

= 1 & =

1+( 1)

1 + ( 1)

1+( 1)

1 + ( 1)

=1

=0

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 Combining terms gives

( 1)

1+( 1)

=0

(Rachford-Rice Equation)

For know flash conditions for T& P, choose V/F,

calculate , iterate (Example 2-2)

P48-53 covers the design (sizing) of flash drums

equations are empirical and contain a number
of empirical constants.
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Homework 1B
Due Wednesday 02/03 12PM
Homework 1A

Assignments must be submitted on Canvas

electronically .
The solving processes has to be included in the solution,
including Graphs and Data.
Note on Homework 1A
Problem 1, Figure 2-7 can be found in file chapter 2 graphs on
Canvas week 2 page.
Problem 2, isobutane and propane instead of isobutene.

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