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Note 3

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Single Stage Heterogeneous Systems: Multi-component flash drum

The previous treated examples have discussed processes that occur in one single phase.
There are several chemical unit operations that are characterized with more than one phase.
These processes are known as heterogeneous systems. In the following we cover some
examples of these processes. Under suitable simplifying assumptions, each phase can be
modeled individually by a macroscopic balance.
A multi-component liquid-vapor separator is shown in figure 2.12. The feed consists of
Nc components with the molar fraction zi (i=1,2… Nc). The feed at high temperature and
pressure passes through a throttling valve where its pressure is reduced substantially. As a
result, part of the liquid feed vaporizes. The two phases are assumed to be in phase equilibrium.
xi and yi represent the mole fraction of component i in the liquid and vapor phase respectively.
The formed vapor is drawn off the top of the vessel while the liquid comes off the bottom of
the tank. Taking the whole tank as our system of interest, a model of the system would consist
in writing separate balances for vapor and liquid phase. However since the vapor volume is
generally small we could neglect the dynamics of the vapor phase and concentrate only on the
liquid phase.

Fv
yi
P, T, Vv
Fo
zi
To
Po VL L FL
xi

Figure 2-12 Multicomponent Flash Drum

For liquid phase:

Total mass balance:


d (  LVL )
  f F f   L FL   v Fv
dt (2.110)

Component balance:

d (  LV L x i )
  f F f z i   L FL xi   v Fv y i (i=1,2,….,Nc-1)
dt (2.111)

Energy balance:

~
d (  LVL h ) ~ ~ ~
  f Ff h f   L FL h  v Fv H
dt (2.112)

~ ~
where h and H are the specific enthalpies of liquid and vapor phase respectively.

In addition to the balance equations, the following supporting thermodynamic relations can
be written:

 Liquid-vapor Equilibrium:
Raoult's law can be assumed for the phase equilibrium
xi Pi s
yi  (i=1,2,….,Nc) (2.113)
P
Together with the consistency relationships:
Nc

y
i 1
i 1 (2.114)

Nc

x
i 1
i 1 (2.115)

 Physical Properties:
The densities and enthalpies are related to the mole fractions, temperature and pressure through
the following relations:
L = f(xi,T,P) 
v = f(yi,T,P) ≈ MvaveP/R T 
Nc (2.118)
Mv ave
= y M
i 1
i i

Nc (2.119)
h = f(xi,T) ≈  x Cp (T  T
i 1
i i ref )

Nc (2.120)
H = f(yi,T) ≈  y Cp (T  T
i 1
i i ref )  m

Nc

m = y
i 1
i i

Degrees of freedom analysis:


 Forcing variables: Ff, Tf, Pf , zi (i=1,2..Nc),
 Remaining variables:2Nc+5: VL, FL, FV, P, T, xi (i=1,2..Nc), yi(i=1,2,…Nc)
 Number of equations: 2Nc+3: (Eq. 2.110, 2.111, 2.112, 2.113, 2.114, 2.115)

Note that physical properties are not included in the degrees of freedom since they are specified
through given relations. The degrees of freedom is therefore (2Nc+5)-(2Nc+3) =2. Generally
the liquid holdup (VL) is controlled by the liquid outlet flow rate (FL) while the pressure is
controlled by FV. In this case, the problem becomes well defined for a solution.

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