Lecture 9 : SYNTHESIS OF SEPARATION SYSTEM HETEROGENOUS MIXTURE SEPARATION

Some Review
WHY SEPARATORS ARE NEEDED ?
- SEPARATION OF DESIRED PRODUCTS FROM BYPRODUCTS
AND UNREACTED FEED UP TO THE REQUIRED
SPECIFICATION.
- PURIFICATION OF FEEDS.
IS IT AVAILABLE AT ANY PLANT ?
.........
TYPES OF SEPARATOR
DISTILLATION
STRIPPER
ABSORBER
MEMBRANE
ADSORBER
ETC...
Extraction
Liquid-Liquid
Solid-Liquid
WHERE ARE SEPARATOR LOCATED ?
REACTOR
SEPARATION
& RECYCLE
SYSTEM
HEAT
EXCHANGER
NETWORK
UTILITIES
reactor
Normaly, form the major part of any chemical plant.
Prior and after reactor !
Short Exercise:
Separators are used for different purposes.
Discuss some of them.
Separator System Synthesis Heuristic Approach
During the conceptual design of a chemical process, among the related decisions that have
to be made concerning separator system ;
Separator type
What type of
suitable separator ?
ABSORBER
MEMBRANE
DISTILLATION
Sequencing of Separator
DISTILLATION
DISTILLATION
MEMBRANE
How are the
separators arranged ?
Operating Conditions
TEMPERATURE
PRESSURE
CONCENTRATION
ADDITION OF EXTRA COMPS.
SUGGESTED PROCEDURE.
HEURISTIC
1. Decide on type of separator that will be likely used for the required separation.
Off course, we have to start
with gathering the related
information !
What type of mixture ?
Homogenous
Require addition or creation
of another phase to perform
separation.
eg. Distillation (liquid mixture)
Extraction (solid, liquid mixture)
Condensation (gas mixture)
Absorption (gas mixture)
Adsorption (gas mixture)
Heterogenous
Exploiting differences in certain
physical properties (eg. density,
molecular size, surface tension
etc.) in order to perform separation.
eg. Membrane Separation
Filtration
Gravity settler
Centrifugal Separator
Phase Separation
Flotation
SUGGESTED PROCEDURE (cont...)
2. Decide on the sequencing of the separator to achieve the process requirement.
1st Golden Rule : Perform the heterogenous mixture separation first or as soon as
the mixture is formed during any stage of the process.
The phase separation involves :
Vapour/Liquid
eg. flash drum

Liquid/Liquid (immiscible)
eg. phase separator

Solid/Liquid
eg. filtration, membrane separation, gravity settler

Solid/Vapour(gas)
Eg. Venturi Scrubber

Solid/Solid
eg. shaking, vibrating screen
The rational : It is easiest to conduct !
Gravity Settler Separators
a. Vapour Liquid Separation - Flash Drum
Liquid drops separated from vapour/gas flow based on the settling velocity (terminal velocity) of
the liquid drop. It is a function of the droplets size. A general eqn. that can be used is;
v
T
= [ (4g d / 3 C
D
) (r
P
r
F
/ r
F
) ]
0.5
V
T
terminal velocity
d particle diameter
C
D
drag coefficient
For Re < 2 , C
D
= 24 / Re
For Re = 2 to 500, C
D
= 18.5 / Re
0.6
For Re = 500 to 200,000, C
D
= 0.44
The maximum velocity of the vapour set within the vessel must be less than the settling velocity.
In the event where droplets particle is very small, the use of baffles of mesh pad could promote
coalescence between the particles to form larger size thus easier to separate.
The method is not practical to separate particle diameter less than 10 micrometer.
b. Liquid Liquid Separation - Decanter
Separation of dispersed liquid phase from a continuous phase. The continuous phase velocity
must be low enough to allow low density droplets to rise from bottom of the vessel to the interface
and coalesce, and the high density droplets to settle down to the interface and coalesce. The
velocity of the continuous phase must be lower than the terminal velocity for the particles
calculated using equation above.
c. Solid Liquid Separation - sedimentation
Solid particles settle to the lower part of the vessel as it travels with the liquid flow across the
vessel. When the prime function of the equipment is to produce more concentrated slurry, it is
called thickener while if the function is to remove the solid particles from the liquid, it is called
clarifier.
v
T
= [ (4g d / 3 C
D
) (r
P
r
F
/ r
F
) ]
0.5
V
T
terminal velocity
d particle diameter
C
D
drag coefficient
For Re < 2 , C
D
= 24 / Re
For Re = 2 to 500, C
D
= 18.5 / Re
0.6
For Re = 500 to 200,000, C
D
= 0.44
Similar equation could be used especially for the lower Re. The efficiency of particle collection
could be reflected by the equation;
h = h / H
h = settling distance of the particles
H height of the settling zone.
Inertial and Centrifugal Separators
In the event when gravity settler is deemed to be too slow due to factor such as closeness in the density
between the droplets or particles and the continuous phase, inertial or momentum separators could
improve the efficiency by giving the momentum force in addition to the gravity force. The additional
force provided is normally in the form of centrifugal force.
Particle Size (mm)
The design of the inertial separators normally follows a collection efficiency curve supplied by
equipment manufacturers from sets of experiments conducted.

Cyclone (solid gas) and hydrocyclone (solid liquid or liquid liquid) are examples of equipment
exploiting the principle.

Electrostatic Precipitation
Electrostatic precipitators are commonly used to separate particulate matter that is easily ionized from a
gas stream. Electrostatic field is produced between wires or grids and collection plates by applying high
voltage between the two. A corona is established around the negatively charged electrode. The corona
ionizes the molecules of gases such as O
2
or CO
2
which in turn attach themselves to the particles and
charging them at the same time. The opposite charge electrode (collection plates) will attract these
particles and later dislodged them by mechanical forces.
The method is most effective when separating particles with high resistivity. The operating voltage
typically range from 25 and 45 kV or more depending on the design and operating temperature.

The application is typically restricted to the separation of fine particles of solid or liquid from a large
volume of gas. Again the design could be based on the collection efficiency curve as provided by
manufacturer.
Filtration
Suspended solid particles in a gas, vapour or liquid are removed by passing the mixture through a
porous medium that retains the particles and passes the fluid (filtrate). The solid can be retained on the
surface of the filter medium (cake filtration) or captured within the filter medium (depth filtration).
The filter media for cake filtration can be made of cloth, ceramic or even metal. There are various
arrangement for the filter media such as plate & frame, bag, conveyor belt, rotating filter etc.
Conventional filter media can be used up to temperature of 250 C. Higher temperatures require
ceramic or metallic.
For the depth filtration, granular medium consisting of layers of particulate solid (eg stones, pebbles
etc.) placed on a support grid is used as the filter medium. Downward flow of the mixtures causes the
solid to be captured within the medium. Such arrangement is normally used for removing small
amount of solids from large quantities of liquids. This filtration mechanism can removed particles with
sizes down to 10 microns.

For smaller sizes particles down to 0.05 microns, microfiltration using polymer membrane is used.
Two most arrangements used consist of spiral wound and hollow fiber.

Scrubber
Scrubbing with liquid (usually water) can enhance the collection of particles when separating gas-solid
mixtures. Packed bed, spray and venturi scrubber are the examples of the many possible designs.
liquid
gas
gas
liquid
gas
gas
liquid
Liquid spray
Radial liquid Spray
gas
gas
Again design is based on the collection
efficiency curve produced by manufacturer.
Good separation but at the expense
of pressure drop.
Flotation
Flotation is a gravity separation process that exploits the differences in the surface properties of
particles. Gas bubbles are generated in a liquid and become attached to solid particles or immiscible
liquid droplets, causing the particles or droplets to rise to the surface. This is used to separate mixtures
of solid-solid particles after dispersion in a liquid or liquid-liquid mixtures of finely divided immiscible
droplets. The liquid normally used is water and the particles of solid or immiscible liquid will attach to the
gas bubbles if they are hydrophobic.

Gas bubbles are generated by means of dispersion, dissolution (changing of pressure from high to low
in the vessel) and electrolysis.

Widely used in the mineral ore processing.
Drying
Removal of water moisture from a solids into a gas stream (normally air) by heat. Four commonly used
type of dryer are tunnel dryers, rotary dryers, drum dryers and spray dryers. Another important class of
dryers is the fluidised bed dryers.

Choice between dryers is normally made based on practicalitiessuch as material handling
characteristics, product decomposition, product physical form etc.

Dryer efficiency is measured by heat of vaporisation / total heat consumed.
Heterogenous mixture separation has to be conducted prior to attempting the separation
of homogenous mixture

Need to know the type of mixture to be separated (gas-liquid, liquid-liquid or solid-liquid)
before a suitable selection of the device could be made.

In case where natural phase separation aided by gravity fails, other means such as
inertial or centrifugal forces, membrane barrier, electrostatic field etc. can be used to
perform the separation but at higher capital and operation cost than gravity settlers.
Summary : Heterogenous Mixture Separation