CHE LAB 2
DISTILLATION
Objective: To determine the reflux ration
required to recover ethanol of desired
specification from ethanol-water mixture.
What is Distillation?
-Distillation deals with the separation of
homogenous mixture of two substances
that has significant difference between the
volatility of each.
Note: Fractional distillation is more effective
form of distillation because it more
accurately separates the ethanol from the
water in a specific volume of ethanol-water
solution.
Is it necessary to put reflux in distillation?
Why?
-Reflux is required in a distillation column to
maintain the quality of distillate product by
controlling the top temperature of column
in consideration.
-Reflux are not only maintaining the
temperature and pressure in the column.
They also provide high mass transfer
through diffusion of high volatiles in the
reflux liquid to vapour and condensing low
volatiles in the liquid.
Note: A column with zero reflux would
require an infinite number of theoretical
trays and the minimum tray are required at
maximum reflux.
What is reflux ratio?
-the ratio of amount of the liquid fed back
to the column as reflux to the amount liquid
withdrawn as distillate. Hence,
R=L/D
Note: At total reflux, the separation desired
is achieved with the smallest packed
height. In this experiment, the packed
height is fixed and must be operated at a
reflux ratio below total reflux. An increase in
the reflux ratio will improve the separation
achieved and consequently increases the
proportion of ethanol in the overhead
product.
DRYING
Objective: To determine the rate of drying
curve of a given material at constant drying
conditions.
What is the Drying?
-The diffusion of moisture from any solid
substance to the surface.
Note: Evaporators are different because it’s
the removal of relatively small amounts of
water from relatively large amounts of solids
Importance of Drying Curve
-A drying curve can serve several valuable
functions; determining the time to reach a
certain solvent level is the main one.
Note: All solid materials have a certain
equilibrium moisture content when in
CHE LAB 2
contact with air at a particular temperature
and humidity. For example, @20C, the
mercury level is at a certain point. If the
temperature changes to 25C, the mercury
level changes to a new equilibrium value.
-Section AB represents a constant drying
rate. Drying takes place by evaporation of
moisture from a saturated surface. This
involves diffusion of the water vapor
through a ‘stationary’ air film and intro the
bulk of the air.
-Point B at the end of the constant rate
period is termed the “Critical Moisture
Content.” At this point the surface of the
solid is no longer saturated and ’dry spots’
begin to appear.
-Point C represents a condition when the
original surface film has evaporated
completely. Beyond this point, the rate of
drying is controlled by the rate of moisture
movement through the solid.
-The second falling rate period, C to D,
represents conditions when the drying rate
is largely independent of conditions outside
the solid. For example, if moisture transfer
from within the solid to the surface is by
vapor diffusion, it is the forces which control
this diffusion that determine the drying rate.
Note: Drying involves the transfer of liquid
from a wet solid into an unsaturated gas
phase.
Note: An increase in the air velocity leads to
an increase in the drying rate. The rate of
drying is initially constant and decreases as
the drying proceeds.
ROTARY DRYER
Objective: To determine the operating
characteristics and efficiency of a direct-
fired rotary dryer.
What is a Rotary Dryer and how does it
work?
-A direct heated dryer uses the
combustion gases generated by the
heater mixed with an artificially heated
gas. This second gas is nearly always
common air, but it can be any inert gas.
-The wet material is fed into one end of
the rotating drum and travels to the other
end where it discharges as dry product
into a transfer conveyor. As the material
travels the length of the drum it is picked
up by lifting flights attached to the inside
of the shell’s circumference and is then
“showered” across the full diameter of
the drum. This allows the transfer of heat
to the product allowing the moisture to
be released.
Note: The efficiency of the dryer is largely
dependent on the differential between the
inlet and exhaust gas temperatures,
although the heat transfer rate is also
influenced by the relationship between the
design of flights and the speed of rotation.
However, irrespective of the gas and
material temperatures the drying (or
residence) time may be critical, as this is
governed by the rate of diffusion of water
from the core to the surface of the material.
LIQUID-LIQUID EXTRACTION
Objective: To demonstrate the basic
principles involved in liquid-liquid
extraction. To calculate the percentage
recovery of solute for a give set of
operating conditions.
What is a Liquid-Liquid Extraction?
-The separation of the constituents(solutes)
of a liquid solution by contact with anther
insoluble solid. Solutes are separated based
on their different solubilities in different
liquids.
CHE LAB 2
EVAPORATION
Objective: To determine the overall heat
transfer coefficient in an evaporator. To
study the effects of temperature drop and
liquor level on the capacity and the overall
heat transfer coefficient of the evaporator.
What is evaporation?
-A process of concentrating a solution by
vaporizing part or all of the solvent which is
usually water. According to Geankoplis,
evaporation aims to concentrate a non-
volatile solute like organic compounds,
inorganic salts, acids or bases from a
solvent.
Note: the solubility of the solute increase
with temperature, which means when a hot
concentrated solution from an evaporator
is cooled to room temperature,
crystallization may occur.
-The important practical considerations in
evaporators are the:
1. Maximum allowable temperature,
2. Promotion of circulation of the liquid
across the heat transfer surfaces,
3. To attain reasonably high heat transfer.
-The boiling point of the solution is related to
the pressure of the system. Th higher the
operating pressures of the evaporator, the
higher the temperature at boiling.
-As the concentration of the dissolved
material in solution increases by
evaporation, the boiling temperature may
rise. In keeping the temperatures low in
heat sensitive materials, it is frequently
necessary to operate under atmospheric
pressure or under vacuum.
Heat Transfer Coefficient
The heat transfer coefficient models the
capacity of a medium to conduct energy
(in heat form). You can picture it as the
inverse of heat insulation. It is defined as the
ratio of the heat conducted by the medium
to the area and temperature difference:
h=Q/AΔT
HEAT TRANSFER IN A DOUBLE PIPE HE
Objective: To determine the overall heat
transfer coefficient using steam to water
forced convection.
What is a Heat Exchanger?
-Heat exchangers are devices used to
transfer heat from one fluid to another.
-The heat transfer occurs because of a
temperature-difference driving force and
heat flows from the high- to the low-
temperature region. Heat transfer may
occur by any one or more of the three
basic mechanisms of heat transfer:
conduction, convection, and radiation.
What is the overall heat transfer coefficient?
-The proportionality constant between the
heat flux and the thermodynamic driving
force for heat flow.
-Countercurrent flow should have higher
overall heat transfer coefficient than
parallel flow. This is because a
countercurrent heat exchanger creates a
more uniform temperature difference
between the fluids over the entire length of
the fluid path.
A large heat transfer coefficient also means
that there is low resistance to the transfer of
heat. There is greater heat recovery in a
CHE LAB 2
countercurrent flow heat exchanger than
in a parallel flow heat exchanger.
Note: The countercurrent flow heat
exchanger creates a more uniform
temperature
between the fluids. There is a greater
recover heat.
Note: There is low resistance to heat transfer
when the heat transfer coefficient is large.
LEVEL SENSOR
Objective: To determine the characteristic
of the differential transformer as position
transducer.
What is Level Sensor?
-Level sensors detect the level of liquids and
other fluids and fluidized solids, including
slurries, granular materials and powders
that exhibit an upper free surface.
What is a Position Transducer?
-A device that changes power from one
system into another form for another
system.
Note: Water can be related to a specific
voltage value. This relationship can be used
to determine or specify the water level at
which a pump is started and turned off.
ON-OFF CONTROL OF LEVEL
Objective: To understand the operation of
a closed loop on-off control system. To
understand the effects of hysteresis on the
control.
What are On-Off Controllers?
-On-off controllers are simple, inexpensive
feedback controllers. They are commonly
used as thermostats in home heating
systems and domestic refrigerators. On-off
controllers can also be used in noncritical
industrial applications such as some level
control loops and heating systems.
What is Hysteresis?
-The dynamic response to change that
causes the path of movement to be
different when the response is increasing
than when the response is decreasing.
Note: In on-off control system, the output
cases change in process variable. Hence
due to effect of output, the process
variable again starts changing but in
opposite direction. When the process
variable crosses certain predetermined
level, during this change, the output valve
of the system is immediately closed and
output is suddenly reduced to 0%.