10.06 - Relating VLE to Distillation

Distillation is the primary choice for separations in the petrochemical industry. Because the majority of chemical processing involves separations/purifications, that makes distillation the biggest economic driver in all of chemical production. Therefore, it is very important for chemical engineers to understand how distillation works (21min, uakron.edu) and how VLE plays the major role. This video is a bit long, but it puts into context how phase diagrams and thermodynamic properties relate to very important practical applications. You may find it helpful to reinforce the conceptual video with some sample calculations.(12min) At the end of the video, you should be able to answer the following:

Consider the acetone+ethanol system. Use SCVP (Eqn 2.47) to answer the following.

1. Sketch a Txy diagram for acetone+ethanol at 1 bar with accurate Tsat's. Label completely.
2. Which component pertaining to #1 would have enhanced concentration in the distillate?
3. Accurately sketch the yx diagram pertaining to #1
4. Use Raoult's Law to estimate α_LH pertaining to #1.
5. Use your sketch from 3 to estimate N_min  to go from x1=0.1 to 0.9.
6. Use the Fenske equation to estimate N_min  with splits of 0.9 and 0.1.