Example.

Benzene­toluene frac ona on (Chapter 6)

An equimolar mixture of benzene and toluene is to be separated in a bubble­plate tower at the rate of
100 [kmol/h] at 1 [atm]. The overhead product must contain at least 98 % benzene and the residue at most
4 %. The feed is saturated liquid. Assume 100 % efficiency of the plates.
Requirements:
Please, determine:
(a) The minimum reflux ratio.
(b) The minimum number of ideal plates.
(c) The number of ideal plates needed for this separation and the position of the feed plate
if the reflux ratio is equal to 1.4 times the minimum value.

Data:
mol
F  100000 ˜ xF  0.5 xD  0.98 xW  0.04 P  101.3 ˜ kPa
hr
q 1 (Sat'd liquid) ϕ  1.4 EMG  100 ˜ %

Calcula ons:
xD xD
( a) Graphically: yI.m  0.44 yI = Rmin  1 1.227 Answer (a)
R1 yI.m

( b) Graphically: Nmin  7.7 Answer (b)

Fenske equaƟon Take a reference point for relaƟve xref.W  0.15 yref.W  0.296
volaƟlity calculaƟon:
yref.W 1  yref.W Kb.W
Kb.W  1.973 Kt.W  0.828 αW  2.383
xref.W 1  xref.W Kt.W

yref.D 1  yref.D
xref.D  0.85 yref.D  0.935 Kb.D  1.1 Kt.D  0.433
xref.D 1  xref.D
Kb.D
αD  2.538 § xD 1  xW ·
Kt.D ln ¨ ˜ ¸
αav.G  αD ˜ αW 2.459 Nmin.  © 1  xD xW
¹ 7.86
ln αav.G
Answer (b)

xD
( c) Re  ϕ ˜ Rmin 1.718 yI  0.361
Re  1

Graphically: Nid  14.5 f  8 Answer (c)

For design purposes, 14 trays plus a partial reboiler are needed.