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22 views15 pages

Chen 308-T1

Uploaded by

adamidrismalam65403065
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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CHEN 308: UNIT OPERATIONS I

Lecture Note

By
Dr A. Abubakar

Department of Chemical Engineering


Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria
1
 Course Outline
 General overview of separation processes and criteria
for selection
 Distillation─Binary (batch and continuous, packed and
plate columns) and multi-component distillation
 Heat exchangers
 Humidification and cooling towers
 Absorption
 Stripping

 Reference Text Books


 Coulson and Richardson’s Chemical Engineering , Vols. 1 and 2.
 Transport Processes and Unit Operations by Christie J. Geankoplis.
 Unit Operations of Chemical Engineering by W. L. Mccabe, J. C.
Smith, P. Harriott. 2
Topic 1

GENERAL OVERVIEW OF SEPARATION


PROCESSES AND CRITERIA FOR SELECTION

3
1.1 Background
A unit operation is a basic step in a chemical process.

Fig. 1.1: Conversion of ethylene to ethanol 4


Classification of unit operations
Key operations
Chemical reactions
Separation of chemical mixtures

Auxiliary operations
Heat addition or removal (heat exchangers), shaft work
(pumps or compressors), mixing or dividing of streams,
solids agglomeration, size reduction of solids, and
separation of solids by size etc.

The key operations are designed solely by chemical engineers


because they involve changes in chemical composition while
auxiliary operations can be sometimes designed by mechanical
engineers because the operations do not involve changes in
5
chemical composition.
1.2 Overview of Separation Processes

Fig. 1.2: Separation processes 6


1.3 Basic Separation Techniques

Separation of a chemical mixture into pure


components, is not a spontaneous process and
thus requires energy.
A mixture to be separated may be single or
multiphase
A phase is a homogeneous, physically distinct,
and mechanically separable portion of matter.
The five basic separation methods shown in
Fig. 1.3 are briefly discussed as follows;

7
Fig. 1.3: Basic separation techniques: (a) separation by phase
creation; (b) separation by phase addition; (c) separation by
barrier; (d) separation by solid agent; (e) separation by force
8
field or gradient.
 Separation by phase creation: This is the most common separation
technique. It creates a second phase, immiscible with the feed phase, by
energy (heat and/or shaft-work) transfer or by pressure reduction. The
energy transferred is known as energy separating agent (ESA). Examples
are distillation, evaporation, condensation, crystallization and drying.
 Separation by phase addition: This technique adds another fluid phase,
which selectively absorbs, extracts, or strips certain species from the
feed. The added phase is called material separating agent (MSA).
Examples include liquid-liquid extraction, absorption, adsorption, stripping
and leaching.
 Separation by barrier: This involves a gas or liquid feed and exploits
differences in species permeabilities through the barrier like a polymer
membrane. Examples of such techniques are osmosis, reverse osmosis,
dialysis, microfiltration, ultrafiltration, gas permeation etc.
 Separation by solid agent: These are techniques that involve contacting
a vapour or liquid feed with a solid agent. The agent consists of particles
that are porous to achieve a high surface area, and differences in species
adsorbability are exploited. Examples are ion exchange and
chromatography.
 Separation by force field or gradient: These involves applying external
fields (centrifugal, thermal, electrical, flow, etc.) in specialized cases to
liquid or gas feeds by exploiting differences in electric charge and
diffusivity. Examples are centrifugation, thermal diffusion, electrolysis etc.
9
1.4 Classification of Separation Processes or
Technologies

Table 1.1: classification of separation processes


Process or technology Input Output Basis for separation

Mechanical Two Two phases Differences in size or density


phases
Rate-based One phase One phase Differences in rate of
transport through a medium

Equilibrium-based One phase Two phases Differences in composition of


two phases at equilibrium

10
In mechanical separation processes, the feed contains
two phases and differences in size or density are
exploited to separate the two phases from each other.
Examples are filtration, sedimentation, flotation etc.
Rate-based separation processes rely on differences in
the rate of transport of the component to be separated
through a medium. This means that separation by
barrier falls under this category.
In equilibrium-based separation processes, the feed is a
multi-component mixture but a single phase. Within the
process, a second phase whose composition is different
from that of the feed is either generated using ESA or a
MSA is added. Therefore, separation by phase creation
and addition constitute this category.
11
1.5 Selection of Suitable Separation Processes

The important factors to be considered in making


selection of the suitable separation process for a
particular application are:
1. The exploitable property difference (physical property
or chemical property). This is the main basis for all
separation processes. Some of these properties are
presented in table below.

12
Table 1.2. Some separation processes with their exploitable
property differences
Property difference Suitable separation processes
Vapour pressures (boiling Distillation, Condensation, Stripping, Drying and
points) Evaporation

Solubility at low temperature Crystallization


(melting point)

Gas solubility in added solvent Absorption


Solubility of solid component in Leaching
added solvent

Particle size Filtration, Expression, Size exclusion,


Chromatography, Microfiltration/Ultrafiltration,
Reverse osmosis
Particle size and Density Sedimentation, Flotation, Centrifugation,
Decantation
Distribution coefficient Solvent Extraction
Affinity for solid surface Adsorption
Electric field Precipitation
13
2. The characteristics of the separation process. It is
recommended to select a separation process that can
operate close to ambient condition as much as possible.
However, operating condition above ambient is preferred
to the one below ambient.

3. The quantities of the key components to be recovered or


removed. For recovery of trace quantities, it is advisable to
use a separation process in which the cost increases with
the quantity of the materials to be recovered and not the
quantity of the stream to be processed. For removal of
small quantities of contaminants that do not need to be
recovered, destructive chemical reactions are preferred to
physical separations.

14
Feed

Two phases Single phase

Mechanical separation process

Equilibrium-based separation process if Rate-based separation


large quantities of the products are process for small-volume,
desirable. Order of property difference to
high-value-added products
be considered: Boiling point → melting
that demand high purity
point → solubility in common solvent →
binding to solid surface

Fig. 1.4: Guidelines for selecting and sequencing separation


processes
15

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