10,000 kgs of a mixture of methanol and water will be supplied to the distillation column per hour, out of which methanol will be 80% (8000 kg/hr) and water will be 20% (2000 kg/hr).
Distillation column needs to separate methanol from the mixture such that the product stream coming out from top of the column should have 7920 kg/hr of methanol while only 20 kg/hr of water.
Your team has found 6 suitable reflux ratios for this column. Using engineering software you need to find number of trays required in the distillation column for each of these reflux ratios to separate methanol and water in the desired way as above.
Team needs the number of trays to find cost of the column for each reflux ratio, and thereby find the ratio corresponding to minimum cost of column.
(Distillation here is a continuous process so kg/hr is used to indicate quantity of mixture entering and products leaving the column per hour)
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You will now begin working on the software for finding the number of trays. This assignment should ideally take 5 minutes.
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How to find number of trays?
Input
Enter the feed mixture and product stream conditions as provided, into the engineering software.
Run calculations
Run the software for the 6 reflux ratios given, without changing rest of the input values.
Output
Software will calculate and give number of trays required for each reflux ratio to achieve the desired methanol separation.
Got it!
About distillation column SOFTWARE
The following values you have entered are incorrect. Please refer to the assignment details and enter the correct values.
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Enter necessary values in the Input form then run calculations for different reflux ratios to generate results.
23 trays are required at the reflux ratio of 1.2 to achieve the target composition of 7920 kg/hr methanol and 20 kg/hr water in the product stream.
20 trays are required at the reflux ratio of 1.4 to achieve the target composition of 7920 kg/hr methanol and 20 kg/hr water in the product stream.
17 trays are required at the reflux ratio of 1.6 to achieve the target composition of 7920 kg/hr methanol and 20 kg/hr water in the product stream.
15 trays are required at the reflux ratio of 1.8 to achieve the target composition of 7920 kg/hr methanol and 20 kg/hr water in the product stream.
14 trays are required at the reflux ratio of 2.0 to achieve the target composition of 7920 kg/hr methanol and 20 kg/hr water in the product stream.
13 trays are required at the reflux ratio of 2.2 to achieve the target composition of 7920 kg/hr methanol and 20 kg/hr water in the product stream.
Please run calculations for all available reflux ratios then submit report
Result report for the team
| Reflux Ratio | 1.2 | 1.4 | 1.6 | 1.8 | 2.0 | 2.2 |
| Number of Trays | 23 | 20 | 17 | 15 | 14 | 13 |
10,000 kgs of a mixture of methanol and water will be supplied to the distillation column per hour, out of which methanol will be 80% (8000 kg/hr) and water will be 20% (2000 kg/hr).
Distillation column needs to separate methanol from the mixture such that the product stream coming out from top of the column should have 7920 kg/hr of methanol while only 20 kg/hr of water.
Your team has found 6 suitable reflux ratios for this column. Using engineering software you need to find number of trays required in the distillation column for each of these reflux ratios to separate methanol and water in the desired way as above.
Team needs the number of trays to find cost of the column for each reflux ratio, and thereby find the ratio corresponding to minimum cost of column.
(Distillation here is a continuous process so kg/hr is used to indicate quantity of mixture entering and products leaving the column per hour)
Got it!
How to find number of trays?
Input
Enter the feed mixture and product stream conditions as provided, into the engineering software
Run calculations
Run the software for the 6 reflux ratios given, without changing rest of the input values.
Output
Software will calculate and give number of trays required for each reflux ratio to achieve the desired methanol separation
Got it!
Time is up!
This assignment could have been solved within 5 minutes. You can still continue to work on it, though deadlines are important in industry.
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