Packed Bed

HETP is typically in the range 0.3 to 0.9

m for random packings and 0.2 to 0.7
m for structured packings.
HETP is normally correlated against an
F-Factor:
FF = vV V
Generally, the lower the F-factor, the
lower the resulting HETP for a given
packing and separation.

Column Diameter
The diameter for packed columns is again taken
to be that giving a vapor velocity to be some
proportion the flooding velocity.
In preliminary design, a value of 80% of the
flooding velocity is usually reasonable.
The flooding velocity for different types of
packing is usually correlated in terms of the flow
parameter used for plate columns, together with
a capacity parameter:

Diameter of Packed column

For a given liquidvapor flow

parameter FLV, the capacity
parameter depends on the design of
packing.

CHOICE OF OPERATING
CONDITIONS

Introduction
The feed composition and flowrate to the
distillation are usually specified.
Also, the specifications of the products are
usually known, although there may be some
uncertainty in product specifications.
The product specifications may be
expressed in terms of product purities or
recoveries of certain components.

Operating Parameters
The operating parameters to be
selected by the designer include:
operating pressure
reflux ratio
feed condition
type of condenser.

operating pressure
As pressure is raised:
separation becomes more difficult
(relative volatility decreases), that is,
more stages or reflux are required;
latent heat of vaporization decreases,
that is, reboiler and condenser duties
become lower;

As pressure is raised
vapor density increases, giving a
smaller column diameter;
reboiler temperature increases with a
limit often set by thermal
decomposition of the material being
vaporized, causing excessive fouling;
condenser temperature increases.

Operating Pressure
As pressure is lowered, these effects
reverse.
The lower limit is often set by the
desire to avoid:
vacuum operation
refrigeration in the condenser.

Key Points
Both vacuum operation and the use
of refrigeration incur capital and
operating cost penalties.
Increase the complexity of the
design.
They should be avoided, if possible.

Key Points
For a first pass through the design, it
is usually adequate, if process
constraints permit,
To set distillation pressure to as low a
pressure above ambient.
It allows cooling water or air-cooling
to be used in the condenser.

Total Condenser-Pressure
option
If a total condenser is to be used, and
a liquid top product taken, the
pressure should be fixed such that:
if cooling water is to be used, the
bubble point of the overhead product
should be typically 10C above the
summer cooling water temperature,
or

Total Condenser-Pressure
option
if air-cooling is to be used, the bubble
point of the overhead product should
be typically 20C above the summer
air temperature, or
the pressure should be set to
atmospheric pressure if either of
these conditions would lead to
vacuum operation.

Partial Condenser
If a partial condenser is to be used and a vapor
top product taken,
Then the above criteria should be applied to the
dew point of the vapor top product, rather than
the bubble point of the liquid top product.
Also, if a vapor top product is to be taken, then
the operating pressure of the destination for the
product might determine the column pressure

exceptions to these
guidelines:
If the operating pressure of the distillation
column becomes excessive as a result of trying
to operate the condenser against cooling water
or air-cooling,
then a combination of high operating pressure
and low temperature condensation using
refrigeration should be used.
This is usually the case when separating gases
and light hydrocarbons.

exceptions to these
guidelines:
If process constraints restrict the
maximum temperature of the
distillation,
then vacuum operation must be used
in order to reduce the boiling
temperature of the material to below
a value at which product
decomposition occurs.
This tends to be the case when
distilling high molar mass material.

Reflux ratio
Another variable that needs to be set
for distillation is reflux ratio.
For a stand-alone distillation column
(i.e. utility used for both reboiling
and condensing), there is a capital
energy trade-off,

Capital Energy Trade off

Key Points
As the reflux ratio is increased from its minimum,
the capital cost decreases initially as the number
of plates reduces from infinity,
but the utility costs increase as more reboiling
and condensation are required,
If the capital costs of the column, reboiler and
condenser are annualized and combined with
the annual cost of utilities, the optimal reflux
ratio is obtained.

Key Points
The optimal ratio of actual to minimum reflux
is often less than 1.1.
However, most designers are reluctant to
design columns closer to minimum reflux
than 1.1, except in special circumstances.
Since a small error in design data or a small
change in operating conditions might lead to
an infeasible design.

Key Points
Also, the total cost curve is often relatively flat
over a range of relative volatility around the
optimum.
when heat integration of the column with the
rest of the process is considered, the nature of
the trade-off changes,
and the optimal reflux ratio for the heatintegrated column can be very different from
that for a stand-alone column.

Feed condition
The optimum feed point should minimize any mixing
between the feed and the flows within the column.
In theory, for a binary distillation it is possible to get an
exact match between a liquid feed and the liquid on a feed
stage.
In practice, this might not be able to be achieved, as
changes from stage to stage are finite.
For a multicomponent system, in general it is not possible
to achieve an exact match, except under special
circumstances.

Feed condition
If the feed is partially vaporized, the
degree of vaporization provides a degree
of freedom to obtain a better match
between the composition of the liquid and
vapor feed and the liquid and vapor flows
in the column.
However, minimizing feed mixing does not
necessarily minimize the operating costs.

Feed condition
Heating the feed most often:
increases trays in the rectifying
section but decreases trays in the
stripping section;
requires less heat in the reboiler but
more cooling in the condenser.

Feed condition
Heat added to provide feed preheating may not
substitute heat added to the reboiler on an equal
basis.
The ratio of heat added to preheat the feed divided
by the heat saved in the reboiler tends to be less
than unity.
Although heat added to the feed may not substitute
heat added in the reboiler, it changes the minimum
reflux ratio as a result of change to the feed
condition (q ).

Feed condition
As the condition of the feed is changed from
saturated liquid feed (q = 1) to saturated vapor feed
(q = 0), the minimum reflux ratio tends to increase.
Thus the ratio of heat added to preheat the feed
divided by the heat saved in the reboiler depends on

the change in q,
the relative volatility between the key components,
feed concentration and
ratio of actual to minimum reflux.

Feed condition
In some circumstances, particularly at high values of actual
to minimum reflux ratio, heating the feed can increase the
reboiler duty.
For a given separation, the feed condition can be
optimized.
It is usually adequate to set the feed to saturated liquid
conditions.
This tends to equalize the vapor rate below and above the
feed, and having a liquid feed allows the column pressure
to be increased if necessary through the feed pump.

Type of condenser
Either a total or partial condenser can be chosen.
Most designs use a total condenser.
A total condenser is necessary if the top product needs
to be sent to intermediate or final product storage.
Also, a total condenser is best if the top product is to
be fed to another distillation at a higher pressure as
the liquid pressure can readily be increased using a
pump.

Type of condenser
If a partial condenser is chosen, then the partial
condenser in theory acts as an additional stage,
In practice the performance tends to be less
than a theoretical stage.
A partial condenser reduces the condenser
duty, which is important if the cooling service to
the condenser is expensive, such as lowtemperature refrigeration.

Type of condenser
Also, in these circumstances a mixed condenser might be
used.
This condenses what is possible as liquid for reflux and a
liquid top product also taken.
However, when condensing a mixture containing low boiling
components, a vapor overhead product might be taken.
In addition to the liquid top product. In such designs, the
uncondensed material often goes to a gas collection system,
or fuel header, to be used, for example, as fuel gas.

Type of condenser
A vapor feed will generally increase the condenser
duty and decrease the reboiler duty of the
downstream column.
Whether this is good or bad for the operating costs of
the downstream column depends on whether the cold
utility used for the condenser or the hot utility used for
the reboiler is more expensive.
Also, when heat integration is discussed later, there
might be important implications resulting from using
partial condensers in the design of the overall process.

LIMITATIONS OF
DISTILLATION
The most common method for the
separation of homogeneous fluid
mixtures with fluid products is
distillation.
Distillation allows virtually complete
separation of most homogeneous
fluid mixtures.

Principal advantages
The ability to separate mixtures with a wide range
of throughputs; many of the alternatives to
distillation can only handle low throughput.
The ability to separate mixtures with a wide range
of feed concentrations; many of the alternatives to
distillation can only handle relatively pure feeds.
The ability to produce high-purity products; many of
the alternatives to distillation only carry out a partial
separation and cannot produce pure products.

Limitations
Separation of materials with low molar mass.
Low molar mass materials are distilled at high pressure to
increase their condensing temperature and to allow, if
possible, the use of cooling water or air-cooling in the
column condenser.
Very low molar mass materials require refrigeration in the
condenser in conjunction with high pressure.
This significantly increases the cost of the separation
since refrigeration is expensive.
Absorption, adsorption and membrane gas separators are
the most commonly used alternatives to distillation for the
separation of low molar mass materials.

Separation of heat-sensitive
materials.
High molar mass material is often heat sensitive and
will decompose if distilled at high temperature.
Low molar mass material can also be heat sensitive,
particularly when its nature is highly reactive.
Such material will normally be distilled under vacuum
to reduce the boiling temperature.
Crystallization and liquidliquid extraction can be used
as alternatives to the separation of high molar mass
heat sensitive materials.

Separation of components with a

low concentration
Distillation is not well suited to the
separation of products that form a
low concentration in the feed
mixture.
Adsorption and absorption are both
effective alternative means of
separation in this case.

Separation of classes of
components.
If a class of components is to be separated (e.g. a
mixture of aromatic components from a mixture of
aliphatic components), then distillation can only
separate according to boiling points, irrespective of
the class of component.
In a complex mixture where classes of components
need to be separated, this might mean isolating
many components unnecessarily.
Liquidliquid extraction and adsorption can be
applied to the separation of classes of components.

Azeotropic behavior
Some homogeneous liquid mixtures exhibit highly
nonideal behavior that form constant boiling
azeotropes.
At an azeotropic composition, the vapor and liquid are
both at the same composition for the mixture.
Thus, separation cannot be carried out beyond an
azeotropic composition using conventional distillation.
Crystallization, liquidliquid extraction and membrane
processes can be used as alternative.

Separation of mixtures of condensable

and noncondensable components
If a vapor mixture contains both
condensable and noncondensable
components, then a partial
condensation followed by a simple
phase separator often can give a
good separation.
This is essentially a single stage
distillation operation.

Summary
Distillation is not well suited for separating either
low molar mass materials or high molar mass
heat sensitive materials.
However, distillation might still be the best
method for these cases, since the basic
advantages of distillation
potential for high throughput,
any feed concentration and
high purity