09.10 - Saturation Conditions from an Equation of State

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Solving for the saturation pressure using PREOS.xls simply involves setting the temperature and guessing pressure until the fugacities in vapor and liquid are equal. (5min, learncheme.com) It is not shown, but it would also be easy to set the pressure and guess temperature until the fugacities were equal in order to solve for saturation temperature. One added suggestion would be to type in the shortcut vapor pressure (SCVP) equation to give an initial estimate of the pressure. Rearranging the SCVP can also give an initial guess for Tsat when given P. This presentation illustrates a sample calculation for toluene to explore when the vapor is the stable, when the liquid is the stable phase, and when the phases are roughly in equilibrium.

Comprehension Questions:

1. Estimate the vapor pressure (MPa) of n-pentane at 450K according to the PREOS. Compare your result to the value from Eq. 2.47 (SCVP) and to the Antoine equation using the coefficients given in Appendix E. What do you think explains the observations that you make?
2. Estimate the saturation temperature (K) of n-pentane at 3.3 MPa according to the PREOS. Compare your result to the value from Eq. 2.47 (SCVP) and to the Antoine equation using the coefficients given in Appendix E. What do you think explains the observations that you make?
3. Estimate the vapor pressure (MPa) of n-pentane at 223K according to the PREOS. Compare your result to the value from Eq. 2.47 (SCVP) and to the Antoine equation using the coefficients given in Appendix E. What do you think explains the observations that you make?
4. Estimate the saturation temperature (K) of n-pentane at 3.3 kPa according to the PREOS. Compare your result to the value from Eq. 2.47 (SCVP) and to the Antoine equation using the coefficients given in Appendix E. What do you think explains the observations that you make?

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We can combine the definition of fugacity in terms of the Gibbs Energy Departure Function with the procedure of visualizing an equation of state to visualize the fugacity as characterized by the PR EOS. (21min, uakron.edu) This amounts to plotting Z vs. density, similar to visualizing the vdW EOS. Then we simply type in the departure function formula. Since the PR EOS describes both vapors and liquids, we can calculate fugacity for both gases and liquids. Taking the reciprocal of the dimensionless density ( V/b=1/(bρ) ) gives a dimensionless volume. When the dimensionless pressure (bP/RT) is plotted vs. the dimensionless volume, the equal area rule indicates the pressure where equilibrium occurs and this can be checked by comparing the ln(f/P) values for the liquid and vapor roots. When the pressure is not exactly saturated, we may still be in the 3-root region. Then you need to check the fugacity to determine which phase is stable.

Concept Questions:

1. What equation can we use to estimate the fugacity of a compressed liquid relative to its saturation value?
2. How accurate is that equation relative to the change in pressure when we are close to saturation?
3. The video shows a graph of ln(f/P) vs. P. Which phase gives the lower value of fugacity when you are to the right of the intersection point? (ie. vapor or liquid?)

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