CL 251: Chemical Engineering Lab I

Lab Report-04
Vapor-Liquid Equilibrium

Sagar Chawla
12110081

Abstract:-
The purpose of this experiment is to determine the liquid-vapor equilibrium data for a
given binary system of benzene and acetone by construct equilibrium between vapor and
liquid. Data for binary system was calculated by measuring the boiling temperature of
solution. Composition of liquid and vapor is measured by refractometery. Boiling point
of binary mixture is depending on their compositions in the mixture. Boiling point of
mixture will change as composition of mixture change. Boiling point of mixture is
decreases as composition of acetone is increases in mixture because acetone is more
volatile component than benzene. Composition of benzene and acetone in liquid and
vapor phase changes as boiling point of mixture changes. Error in data is probably due to
human error and there were some leaks in apparatus.


Introduction:-
Separation of two or more compound based on their different composition in mixture is
one of the most common operations in Chemical engineering. There is no changes occur
in the macroscopic properties of a system with time in Equilibrium condition. Vapor
liquid Equilibrium is a condition where the rate of evaporation is equal to the rate of
condensation. Boiling point temperature of mixture is depends upon the composition of
acetone and benzene in the mixture. Boiling point temperature of mixture is Intermediate
temperature between the two pure compound boiling points. Relative volatility is a
measure of comparing the vapor pressures of components in a liquid mixture. When the
volatilities of both liquids are same, then separation would be impossible. The vapor-
liquid equilibrium data gives the basic information of the system that is required for the
design of the equilibrium stages of vapor liquid separation equipment like distillation.
Equilibrium data represent the composition of the mixture in vapor phase and liquid
phase. Equilibrium compositions are function of temperature and pressure. Separation at
Industry level is done in isobaric condition.
There is a relation between refractive index of the solution and mole fraction and
Composition of a component in a solution can be measured by knowing the refractive
index (R.I) of the solution for acetone the R.I and mole fraction (X
A
) relation is given as:
R.I = -0.1397*X
A
+ 1.4995 (1)
Relation between partial pressure and temperature is given by Antoine equation:
LnP
X
=A
B
T+C
(2)
Where:
T- Saturation temperature (
0
C)
P
X
Saturated partial pressure.
A, B and C are constants which vary for different components.
For acetone:
A=14.31, B=2765.22, C=228.06.
For benzene:
A=13.78, B=2726.81,C=217.57
P
T
= P
A
+ P
B

P
1
=Total Pressure
P
A
= X
A
P
T

P
B
= X
h
P
T

At equilibrium, the relationship between the compositions of species i in the vapor and
liquid phases is often defined by a K-value, or equilibrium ratio:
K
|
=
X
|
Y
|

K
A
=
X
A
Y
A

K
A
=
X
B
Y
B

Where: Y
A
=Mole fraction of acetone (A) in vapour
Y
B
=Mole fraction of benzene (B) in vapour
X
A
=Mole fraction of acetone (A) in liquid
X
B
=Mole fraction of benzene (B) in liquid
The relation between reaction coefficient (
X
) and mole fractions can be given as:
Y
A
= (P
A
/ P
T
) *
A
X
A

Y
B
= (P
B
/ P
T
) *
B
X
B
Relative volatility:
u
AB
=
Y
A
1-Y
A
,
X
A

1-X
A

,

Van Laar equations are
|ug
yA
=
a
[1 +
aX
A

hX
B
]
2 _

|ug
yB
=
h
[1 +
hX
B

aX
A
]
2
_

Procedure:-
A 500ml solution of benzene and 100ml solution of acetone was taken in a beaker. The
mixture solution was injected into still vaporizer. Power was switched on and the
temperature of the heater was set to 100 degree Celsius and heated the mixture. Mixture
started to boil after sometime. The vapor goes up into the condenser and is collected in
the collector. The condensed vapor was then again poured back into the vaporizer and
again system was left to attain equilibrium. After equilibrium was attained, temperature
becomes constant but a slight variation in temperature was observed and the value of
temperature was noted down. Refractive index of both condensed vapor and liquid in
vaporizer was measured by refractometer. The mixture from still was drained out and
same procedure was repeated for solutions of composition: 250ml benzene +250ml
acetone and 200ml benzene +300ml acetone. And then using R.I values, values of X
A

and Y
A
was determined




Result:
Table 1.Data of Properties for Benzene and Acetone


Component Density at 20
0
C

(Kg/lit)
Molecular
Weight
(g/mol)
Boiling Point

(
0
C)
R.I at 20
0
C

(nD)
Benzene

0.87 78.11 80.1 1.50
Acetone

0.79 58.08 56.0 1.35
Table 2.Boiling point for different compositions calculated was as follows:
Acetone volume
(ml)
Benzene volume
(ml)
Temperature
(
0
C)
100 400 69
250 250 60.9
300 200 58.3

Table 3 Data of. Refractive Index of Liquid and Vapor phase at boiling points for
different compositions.

Temperature
(Liquid)
0
C
69 60.9 58.3
Temperature
( Vapour)
0
C
66.4 58.7 57.1
R.I (Liquid)
nD
1.4725 1.3773 1.3973
R.I (Vapour)
nD
1.4407 1.4190 1.3968


Table 4.Data of mole fractions of Acetone and Benzene at different boiling points in
liquid and vapor phase

Temperature
(Liquid)
0
C
69 60.9 58.3
X
A
0.1932 0.8747 0.7316
X
B
0.8067 0.1253 0.2684
Y
A
0.4209 0.5762 0.7351
Y
B
0.5791 0.4238 0.2649




Table 5.Calculatting the Van Laar constants a and b and other data.

Temperature
(Liquid)
0
C
69 60.9 58.3

A
3.6133 1.0902 1.6616

B
1.8068 8.5475 2.4964
Ln(
A
/
B
) 0.6930 -0.8943 -0.1768
K
A
2.1778 0.6588 1.0049
K
B
0.7178 3.3829 0.9867
A 7.3719 0.05613 1.4729
B 0.4889 28.0169 1.05718






Graph 1.Difference in area about X-axis for Ln(
A
/
B
) Vs X
A
plot.

-1
-0.8
-0.6
-0.4
-0.2
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
0.193271296 0.874731568 0.731567645
Ln(
A
/
B
) Vs X
A
log vs xa




Graph 2. Interrelation between Ln(
A
) and Ln(
B
) Vs X
A
plots.

Discussion & Conclusion:-
It can be seen that boiling point of mixture decreases and composition of more volatile
compound in vapor phase is increases as quantity of more volatile compound is increases.
This difference in composition between the vapor and liquid phases becomes the basis for
separating the compounds. Whole process was done at constant pressure, if pressure is
vary throughout the process then some variation is occur in properties of compounds
because that properties are function of pressure and temperature. Acetone is more volatile
because it has week van der Waals forces than benzene. Data of vapor-liquid equilibrium
is useful to design setup for different industrial separation process.
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
LnA Vs XA
LnB Vs XA

Appendix:
Sample calculation:
For 100ml of acetone and 400ml of benzene boiling temperature: 69
0
C.
R.I(vapour) =1.4725 nD
R.I (liquid) =1.4407 nD
Thus from equation (1)
X
A
=( R.I -1.4995)/ (-0.1397)
X
A
=(1.4407 -1.4995)/ (-0.1397)
X
A
=0.193271
Thus X
B
=1- X
A
X
B
=0.8067

References:-
1. http://www.colby.edu/chemistry/PChem/lab/LiquidVaporEquil.pdf
2. http://www.d.umn.edu/~dlong/exvle.pdf
3. https://www.fpharm.uniba.sk/fileadmin/user_upload/english/Physical_Chemistry/3-
Liquid-vapour_equilibrium.pdf
4. Lab manual