ASSIGNMENT-II

Flash Vaporization of H2O2 solution

Mass Transfer

Achmad Rayhan (1706985640), Mohammad Bilal Nuraziz (1706038185).

Chemical Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineer, Universitas Indonesia
Depok, Jawa Barat, Indonesia.

ABSTRACT
Along with the development of the use of various types of compounds, one compound that
continues to attract the attention of many scientists is hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). H2O2 is a
peroxide compound, which is a compound that has a single bond between oxygen. This
compound can naturally originate from the chemical processes of the human body for the
purposes of detoxification in body organs and in rain and snow, where the result of the
reaction of water with ozone causes ozone to lose one of its oxygen to form H2O2.
H2O2 has the property to decompose easily when exposed to light along with the development
of the use of various types of compounds, one compound that continues to attract the
attention of many scientists is hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). H2O2 is a peroxide compound,
which is a compound that has a single bond between oxygen. This compound can naturally
originate from the chemical processes of the human body for the purposes of detoxification in
body organs and in rain and snow, where the result of the reaction of water with ozone causes
ozone to lose one of its oxygen to form H2O2.
1. Introduction
Another method of distillation is the flash vaporization distillation method. This
method increases production rates, but decreases the products purity as it runs continuously.
Flash vaporization is the one of the few methods that enables mass production with lower
concentration, unlike differential distillation which produces high concentrated products but
with limited production rates. In this paper, we would like to utilize this method to distillate a
dilute H2O2 solution into lab-grade solution, and see whether if it yields economical results.
II. Flash vaporization of binary mixture
Flash vaporization consists of three main principles. The first one is the partial
vaporization of the liquid mixture. This is done in several ways, most notably by first heating
the liquid feed to a certain temperature and then “flashing” it by flowing it through an orifice,
causing enough pressure drop that would cause some amount of the mixture to evaporate
(with the most volatile substance evaporating the most). The second one is allowing the
system to reach equilibrium inside the separator unit. Lastly is the separation between both
the liquid & gas phase, with the liquid phase flowing downwards in the separator unit and the
gas flowing upwards.
The composition of mixture that is used in this study case is written in Table 1.
Binary Multicomponent
Compound Mole fraction Compound Mole fraction
H2O 0.97 H2O 0.8
H2O2 0.03 H2O2 0.03
Ethanol 0.17
Table1. Mixture composition

In order to calculate the mixture composition in the product side, we have to derive
an equation that would ease further calculations / iterations if we have already established the
mixture that is used. To do so is to utilize the material balance that happen within the
separator unit system.

Figure1. A flash distillation unit comprised of a heat exchanger, expansion valve, and separator.
Source: www.sciencedirect.com
 The material balance of the system is written as so:
𝐹 =𝑊+𝐷
𝐹 ∗ 𝑧𝐹 = 𝐷 ∗ 𝑦𝐷 + 𝑊 ∗ 𝑧𝑊
𝐻𝐹 + 𝑄 = 𝐻𝐷 + 𝐻𝑊
By simultaneously finishing each equation, a new and simpler equation is formed:
−𝑊 𝑦𝐷 − z𝐹 𝐻𝐷 − (𝐻𝐹 + Q/F)
= =
𝐷 𝑥𝑊 − z𝐹 𝐻𝑊 − (𝐻𝐹 + Q/F)
This equation is known as the operating line slope, and it allows distillation
calculations to be done through the x-y graph by plotting the line within the operating line so
that it reaches a new point in the x-y curve. This new point is the distillation composition of
the solution. Further iteration of the liquid temperature of the mixture also allows the
calculation of the separator’s temperature in its equilibrium stage.
A B C T min T max BP
H2O 7.96681 1668.21 228 60 150 100.0006
H2O2 7.96917 1886.76 220.6 - - 150.1995
Etanol 7.68117 1332.04 199.2 77 243 78.28773

T log Pa Pa(mmHg) log Pb Pb(mmHg) x y

100.0006249 2.880814 760 2.084091 121.3643 1 1
105 2.95717 906.087962 2.174453 149.4351 0.806928692 0.962037
110 3.031277 1074.67577 2.262092 182.8487 0.647156057 0.915109
115 3.103224 1268.30585 2.34712 222.3924 0.514007734 0.857788
120 3.173103 1489.7147 2.429652 268.9376 0.402253948 0.788478
125 3.241003 1741.81744 2.509795 323.4409 0.307787851 0.705408
130 3.307006 2027.70854 2.587653 386.948 0.227365294 0.606619
135 3.37119 2350.66188 2.663321 460.5966 0.158409024 0.489955
140 3.433631 2714.13004 2.73689 545.6202 0.09886041 0.353053
145 3.494397 3121.74289 2.808448 643.3509 0.047066453 0.193328
150 3.553556 3577.30551 2.878074 755.2217 0.00169317 0.00797
150.199 3.555884 3596.53254 2.880814 760 -3E-16 -1.3E-15
Table2. Calculations on x-y Graph of H2O-H2O2 mixtures.

First of all, we should look at the table above to understand the data that is crucial to the plot
process of x-y graph of this binary mixture. The data above is obtained by using Antoine’s
equation and modified equation that is discussed at previous section.
Now, we are able to visualize into the x-y graph below:

H2O & H2O2 x-y curve

1 150
y = mole fraction of water in vapor 0.9 140
0.8
130
0.7

Temperature, °C
0.6 120

0.5 110
0.4 100
0.3
90
0.2
0.1 80

0 70
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
x = mole fraction of water in liquid

Figure2. H2O- H2O2 x-y graph. The orange line indicates the liquid temperature of the mixture.

With these ideas in mind, we would like to distillate an H2O2 solution from 3% in
mole fraction into 35% and calculate its economic feasibility. We begin by using Raoult’s
law and the distribution coefficient (m) to calculate the product flow rate. This is done by the
following equations:
𝑅𝑎𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑡 ′ 𝑠 𝑙𝑎𝑤: 𝑦𝐷 = 𝑚 ∗ 𝑥𝑊
𝑊 𝑦𝐷 − 𝑧𝐹 𝑦𝐷 𝑊 𝑊
− =𝑦 → 𝑦𝐷 − 𝑧𝐹 = − ∗ + 𝑧𝐹 ∗
𝐷 𝐷 𝑚 𝐷 𝐷
𝑚 − 𝑧𝐹
𝑊
𝑧𝐹 (1 + 𝐷 )
𝑦𝐷 =
𝑊
1 + (𝑚 ∗ 𝐷 )

With the help of goal seek, we can easily calculate the operating line’s slope by
searching for its value that would result in the sum of all the vapor mole fraction being 1
(∑ 𝑦𝐷∗ = 1). The conditions of the flash distillation for the binary composition given in Table
1 is written below (Table 3). The results conclude that the initial flash distillation at this
condition has an operating line slope of -W/D = -0.218585. This would allow us to calculate
the composition of the distillate.
 Compound Pvap m zF yD xW
H2O 823.1045 1.083032 0.97 0.983526 0.908122
H2O2 133.3809 0.175501 0.03 0.01628 0.092765
SUM 0.999806 1.000888

Table3. Goal Seek Method to determine -W/D slope

Figure3. Visualization of Goal Seek Method in x-y Graph.

By repeating the process, we can eventually achieve the stage in which the distillate
composition reaches the intended concentration. To ease the interpretation of the data, the x-y
curve above is plotted with the points of the composition and the distillation results below:

Flash distillation conditions and results

No. Separator Mole Flowrate (kg-mol/hr) XW of H2O
Temperature (°C) F D W
1 102.25 100 … 17.93 0.92
2 106 17.93 … 3.28 0.78
3 110 3.281 … 1.652 0.64

Judging by the curve, the solution will finally reach a concentration of around 35%
after distillation has been done three times in subsequent flash vaporization units via manual
calculation.
This result was strongly supported by use of a Unisim Software to calculate the distillation
process. And it checks out, exactly like the manual result with slight improvement over a
numerical error.
 Figure4. Distillation process of binary mixtures by Unisim software (H2O-H2O2).

III. Flash vaporization of multicomponent mixture

As for the multicomponent mixture, the principle calculations are the same. It is
slightly harder to represent it graphically; thus, tabulated results are written instead below
(Table 4) for a manual calculation through the use of Raoult’s law with fugacity introduced to
it. The composition for the flash vaporization is already written in Table 1. The result of the
calculations is given below:
Flash distillation conditions and results
No. Separator Mole Flowrate (kg-mol/hr) XW
Temperature F D W H2O H2O2 Ethanol
(°C)
1 97 100 … 61.756 0.833 0.0447 0.122
2 101 61.756 … 13.2 0.8098 0.126 0.0608
3 105 13.2 … 5.72 0.73 0.23 0.0316
4 109.5 5.72 … 3.17 0.622 0.36 0.016

It requires four stages of distillation to produce a concentration of 36% (can be diluted to

35%) H2O2 solution via manual calculation.

Figure5. Distillation process of multicomponent mixtures by Unisim software (H2O-H2O2-Ethanol).

 Figure6. Inlet-Outlet of the multicomponent mixture distillation process.

IV. Economic Analysis

From the simulation of thus distillation process, we could withdraw a conclusion that
with a feed of 1827kg of 3% H2O2 mixtures, there is an end-product of 21kg of 35% H2O2
mixtures. By neglecting the operation cost that includes all of the equipment, we can
calculate the gross revenue of this type of businesses. The price of 3% mixture is around
55.000 IDR/kg, while the price of that of 35% mixtures estimated to be 654.700IDR/kg.
Thus, the calculation goes by:
𝑅𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛𝑢𝑒 = 𝑆𝑎𝑙𝑒𝑠 𝑃𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑒 − 𝐶𝑜𝑠𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑃𝑟𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛
= 21(654700) − 1827(55000)
= −86736300
On the multicomponent mixtures, we could withdraw same conclusion with the ones
above. With a feed of 2326 kg 3% H2O2 mixtures, we could get 4.088 kg of 35% H2O2
mixtures. Let’s assume that the price of thus binary and multicomponent mixtures of 3%
H2O2 is the same.
Thus, the calculation also goes by:
𝑅𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛𝑢𝑒 = 𝑆𝑎𝑙𝑒𝑠 𝑃𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑒 − 𝐶𝑜𝑠𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑃𝑟𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛
= 4.088(654700) − 2326(55000)
= −125253586
It’s clearly seen that this type of businesses model inflict a financial loss rather than making
profit. The reason behind was the procedure it takes to produce such a product. We already
know that flash vapour distillation weren’t mean to increase the concentration by significant
amount. Rather, it’s a procedure to increase a little bit of concentration those results in large
quantities of product.
Thus, we could only provide a conclusion with regards to economic analysis that this was not
the best way to spend limited resources of H2O2 nor that this is a model business that would
make any profit.
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