1.

Introduction to equilibrium stagewise separations Learning Outcomes After completing this lecture and associated tutorial problems, you should be able to do the following: o o Appreciate that at the most basic level, one can only separate phases For a homogeneous mixture, consider the physicochemical properties of the system and try to create a new phase to facilitate separation

Introduction One often needs to separate materials e.g. tea leaves from brewed tea , iron or copper minerals from ore roc! "hemical reactors usually end up with unreacted reactants in final product plus byproducts A#$" If we are dealing with a gas phase reaction then, in general, after reacting A % $, you get a mixture of A, $ % "

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&hase separation

" &roduct

At the most basic level, one can only separate phases : 'hese are usually: (olid )i*uid +as

Test Yourself 1 - .ow many phases can water exist in/ 0hat are they/ Answer: 'hree, li*uid water, water vapour, solid ice (o to separate a gas from a li*uid o o o 1sually 2ust let gravity do the wor! for us If it is a fog, then by passing the mist through a gau3e, the li*uid 4fine water droplets5 stic!s to the wire mesh and the gas goes on through If it is a foam or froth, then you may need foam brea!ers

'o separate a gas from a solid o 1sually 2ust let gravity do the wor! for us o If particles are fine, e.g. cigarette smo!e or diesel engine exhaust gas, you may need to filter the gas through a fine gau3e face mas! 6aybe charge the particles up so that they migrate to the charged walls electrostatic precipitation 6aybe increase gravity - cyclone 'o separate a solid from a li*uid o 1sually 2ust let gravity do the wor! for us however, if particles are really small e.g. pollen, $rownian motion can !eep the particles suspended 6aybe increase gravity in a centrifuge 4sugar crystals from sugar syrup5 or continuously in a cyclone "an filter through a fine cloth can ta!e a while though 6ay be apply pressure cunning 'o separate a li*uid from a li*uid o (ay oil from water 'his can be hard. +ravity will do if the drops are large. A centrifuge may help. 7mulsions are very difficult to separate

)ife would be great if systems were really as simple as those discussed above One usually has to convert a homogeneous mixture into one of the basic systems by creating the new phase 1.1. Phase change operations Free3ing 6elting 7vaporation "ondensation

(eparation and purification o 8esigned to separate components of mixtures from one another

6ixture of A % $ 9-phase system $ 4almost pure5

A 4almost pure5

Examples of multiphase separation processes o $rewing a cup of coffee Leaching dissolving a component of a solid phase into a li*uid solution 4coffee5 iltration separating the ground coffee from the brewed coffee ,emoval of (O9 from a gas stream $urning of a fuel containing sulphur combustion gas contains (O 9 In the atmosphere, (O9 combines with O9 to form (O: which in turn dissolves and reacts with water vapour to form sulphuric acid acid rain !bsorption or scrubbing (O9 dissolves in the solvent % the clean gas that remains is released to the atmosphere ,ecovery of methanol from an a*ueous solution 6ethanol has a higher "apour pressure than water, meaning it has a greater tendency to vapourise when a mixture of the two species is heated. 'his separation process is called #istillation 7xploits this difference in volatility by partially vapourising a li*uid mixture, yielding a vapour rich in methanol and a residual li*uid relatively rich in water (ubse*uent partial condensation and vapourisation can be used to recover almost pure methanol ,ecovered methanol can be rec$cled and reused resulting in considerable savings in raw material costs (eparation of paraffinic % aromatic hydrocarbons )i*uid paraffinic hydrocarbons pentane, hexane, heptane )i*uid aromatic hydrocarbons ben3ene, toluene, xylene 0hat preferences in properties of paraffinic % aromatic hydrocarbons can we exploit to separate mixtures of the two o 8ifferent chemical characteristics e.g. li*uid paraffinic compounds are almost immiscible in li*uid ethylene glycol whereas aromatic compounds readily form homogeneous mixtures (eparation strategy $lend 4mix5 a mixture of the two with ethylene glycol allow to settle 4i.e. stop mixing5 Aromatic compounds distribute between a paraffinic-rich phase and a glycol phase

o Liquid extraction (ubse*uent processing separates aromatics from ethylene glycol which may be recycled and reused for the extraction process o (eparation of an isomeric mixture o p-xylene, o-xylene, m-xylene p-xylene is a constituent in the synthesis of polyesters and must be separated from two of its isomers o (eparation strategy ; 6olecular sieve pores large enough to accommodate p-xylene but not mxylene and o-xylene !dsorption o (eparation strategy 9 8ifference in free3ing points of the three isomers p-xylene 4;:.:"5, m-xylene 4-<=.>"5, o-xylene 4-9?.9"5 6ixture is cooled to a temperature at which p-xylene cr$stalli%es and then can be separated physically 4e.g. using filtration5 from the li*uid containing mxylene and o-xylene

1.&. 'ome concluding comments 0hen a species transfers from one phase to another, the transfer rate generally decreases with time until the 9nd phase is saturated with the species holing as much as it can hold at the prevailing process conditions. 0hen the concentration of all species in each phase no longer change with time, the phases are said to be in phase equilibrium. 'he effectiveness of any separation process described above depends both on how species are distributed between the phases at e*uilibrium and on the rate at which the process@system approaches e*uilibrium from its initial state. Test Yourself & (uggest a method that might be suitable to achieve each of the following separations ;. (eparate crude oil into three fractions a. a fraction containing volatile low molecular weight compounds 4napthas used to ma!e gasoline and light chemicals5 b. intermediate molecular weight compounds 4used for heating oils5 c. non-volatile high molecular weight compounds 4used for lubricating oils5 9. ,emove water from an a*ueous slurry of bleached wood pulp :. Obtain fresh water from sea water 4. (eparate A.: from a mixture of A9, .9 and A.:. Ammonia is highly soluble in water, also it condenses at -::.<" ?. "oncentrate O9 from air for breathing-impaired patients 1.(. )ibliograph$ B;C Felder, ,. 6. and ,ousseau, , 0. 9DDD. 7lementary principles of chemical processes. : rd edition. Eohn 0iley % (ons.