Name: Ameerul Ahwaz Student ID:H00199999

Introduction:
In this experiment, the SOLTEQ Vapour Liquid Equilibrium Unit is used to observe the
systems of the multi components and also the any of the binary system. The mixture which is
used in this experiment is the methanol-water mixture which were supply into the evaporator
of the unit. The mixture would have started to heat up and boil as the heater is switched on.
Once the temperature of the evaporator exceeded the set point value, it is switched off where
the switch is located at the temperature controller of the heater. Vapour would rise from the
evaporator and into the condenser as the liquid is done boiled. Then, the condensed vapour
and liquids flows back into the evaporator. Equilibrium state would be achieved in between
the vapour and liquid phases and which would cause the previous process to stop. At this
stage, the temperature will remain constant. Determination of the composition can be made
by taking samples of the vapour and liquid.

Objective:
To study the relationship between the liquid and vapour at atmospheric pressure.
To plot and study the equilibrium curve for methanol-water system at atmospheric
pressure.
To plot and study the calibration curve which using refractive index as y-axis and
mole fraction of methanol as x-axis.

Results and Discussion:

Table 1 : Data for methanol and water.

Table 2: Data for methanol-water solution.

Figure 1: Calibration Curve.

At the beginning of this work, initially the volume of A which is methanol would be 0
whereas the volume of B which is water that would be 10 mL and it both solution area to be
mix so that the refractive index can be obtain by using the refractometer. The steps would be
repeated as volume A and B would be different from 0-10 and 10-0 respectively. In Table 1,
the data of density and molecular weight for both component A and B are shown respectively.
The mass for both A and B can be obtained by multiplying the components density and the
volume of the component as follows in the Table 2. The no of mole is obtained by dividing
the mass of the component and its molecular weight. From that, the mole fraction can be
obtained.

By referring to the Figure 1, the curve was plotted refractive index against the mole fraction.
The trend follows as the value of refractive index increases, the mole fraction would reach its
maximum point which is 1.3413. The parabolic curve decrease downwards which is shown as
well in Figure 1 and it stops at the coordinate of (1, 1.3306).

Table 3: Data for equilibrium curve

Figure 2: T-XY curve.

Figure 3: Theoretical T-XY curve.

The binary system is represented by Figure 2 which is the curve of temperature

against the composition of liquid and vapour. This curve plays an important role to
evaluate the binary distillation system. Referring to the Table 3, the temperature is
obtained from the VLE unit where it reaches its maximum temperature, whereas the
composition of both liquid and vapour is obtained by calculating using the calibration
curve (Figure 1). Both dew and bubble points in polynomial form shown in Figure 1
and Figure 3 are quite similar. Referring back to Figure 2 in terms of composition,
vapour is higher than liquid. This is due to the volatility of the methanol is higher than
water. Whereas in the aspect of temperature, the boiling point of the methanol is
relative low compared to water because waters boiling point is approximately at
atmosphere condition. The bubble point is referred as the starting point of a liquid to
vaporise whereas the dew point is a starting point of a vapour to start to condense. In
Figure 2, the vapour form of methanol is at above the vapour-liquid region which is
the two-phase region. Below the region is the liquid form of methanol. This situation
shows that the temperature influence the composition of the vapour and liquid at
atmospheric condition. It can be deduced that high volatility component has the
likelihood to behave as liquid compared to less volatility at increasing temperature.
Therefore, high volatility component would vaporise faster than less volatility
component. Nevertheless, differences can be found between experimental and
theoretical curve of the T-XY. In Figure 2, the curve of each plots is not
interconnected with each other as there are several factors would affect the curve not
to be theoretical perfect. Firstly, is the ideal phase of liquid and vapour form are
absent. Next is the vapour pressures component are pure. Raoults Law is represented
by the curve in Figure 3, however it can only be applicate for solution which is ideal
and unwontedly, an ideal solution in this experiment is absent.

When carrying out this experiment, there are several errors that occur which affect the
accuracy of the experimental data and results when making a comparison to the
theoretical value. Firstly, the temperature shown in the VLE unit kept altered by itself
which the date obtained is not accurate. Moreover, the mixture poured in the unit have
not reach equilibrium fully and the result obtained took some time as it is a time-
consuming process. Due to this error, it would affect the refractive index value where
the plotted curve in Figure 2 would not likely be the same as the curve in Figure 3.
Lastly, since the concentration of the methanol was uncertain, therefore it would
affect the reading of the temperature as well as the refractive index.

Conclusion:
Based on the data and graphs in this experiment, it can conclude that high volatility
component would likely behave as liquid than less volatility component. In discussion
of the curve, it can be seen that high volatility component would vaporise faster than
less volatility component during increasing of the VLE unit temperature. As for
recommendation for this experiment is that, when taking the RI value and temperature
for both liquid and vapour shown in the VLE unit are to be in a few repetitions as
average value can be calculate so that accuracy of the results can be improve. Lastly,
is to make sure that when pouring both methanol and water into the unit is fully fill as
less quantity both of the mixture would affect the results accuracy.

Reference:
Msubbu.in. (2017). VLE Data - Mass Transfer Solved Problems - msubbu.
[online] Available at: http://www.msubbu.in/sp/mt/VaporLiquidEquil.htm
[Accessed 9 Mar. 2017].