Separation Process Technology

Topic contents

Methods for the non empirical design of equilibrium stage separations for ideal and non-ideal systems, based on mass transfer phenomena and phase equilibrium.

• Introduction to the separation process technology;
  
• Phase equilibrium: vapor/liquid and liquid/liquid;
  
• Flash vaporization: binary and multicomponent;
  
• Equilibrium stages and multistage cascades;
  
• Gas absorption and stripping;
  
• Continuous distillation: design methods for binary and multicomponent systems; continuous-contact equipment; azeotropic distillation, equipment for gas-liquid operations;
  
• Liquid/liquid extraction: liquid-liquid equilibrium, multistage operations

Prerequisites

A solid understanding of chemical thermodynamics, particularly of liquid-vapor equilibrium (LVE) and phase diagrams. A script on thermodynamics can be found Downloadhere (PDF, 992 KB)vertical_align_bottom.

Exercises

Exercises are not mandatory, but highly recommended. The organization is as follows:

1. The exercises are uploaded after each lecture, along with the final answers of each question.
2. Tutorial sessions are held the following week from 13:15 to 14:00 in ML F 38.
3. The complete solution of the previous week’s exercises is uploaded after the tutorial session.

Exercises can be found here.

Aspen Plus tutorial

Material for the Aspen Plus tutorial can be found here.

Office hours

Students can contact Tuvshee, Nicolas or Mercedeh for specific questions about the exercises and the lecture.