UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MARA

FAKULTI KEJURUTERAAN KIMIA

PROCESS SIMULATION LABORATORY
(CPE613)

No. Title Allocated Marks (%) Marks

1 Procedure 10
2 Process Flow Diagram (PFD) 20
3 Workbook 30
4 Questions & Discussions 40
TOTAL MARKS 100

Remarks:

Checked by: Rechecked by:

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Date: Date:
CONTENT

NO. Title Page

1. OBJECTIVES 1

2. PROCEDURE 1

3. PROCESS FLOW DIAGRAM (PFD) 2

4. WORKBOOK 34

5. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 5

6. DISCUSSION 68

7. REFERENCES 9
 OBJECTIVES
1. To understand the usage of valve and distillation specification.

PROCEDURE
1. The icon of Aspen Hysys is clicked and the software are opened.
2. A new case is opened and the entire component needed such as methanol and water
are selected in the component list and the fluid package which is Advanced Peng-
Robinson is selected.
3. The icon on the desktop is clicked and the blank simulation is opened. The splitter,
valve and two distillation column is dragged one by one from the palette into the blank
simulation space.
4. Each of unit operation is renamed and the table of composition for each component is
filled with given information :

Condition DC1 DC2

Pressure (bar) 5.2 1.01
Number of trays 16 13
Feed Tray* 12 9
Reflux ratio 1.26 0.834
Distillate to feed
0.96 0.96
ratio
*Count from the top of DC

5. All streams from each unit operation models are connected.

6. After all the information is enough to make the system converged, the system is let to
run and all the data are recorded.

PROCESS FLOW DIAGRAM (PFD)

Figure 1
WORKBOOK
 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
1. What is the molar flow before entering DC1 and DC2?
The molar flow before entering DC1 and DC2 are the same which are 1350 kgmole/h

2. How to reduce pressure in DC2?

In order to reduce pressure in DC2 the liquid pressure is lowered down before entering
DC2 by using valve. The Pressure is lowered down from 5.2 bar into 1.01 bar.

3. What is the temperature at the bottom of DC1 and DC2?

The temperature at the bottom of DC1 is 153.0 oC and the temperature at the bottom of
DC2 is 99.56 oC.

4. Did the process achieve a methanol that free from water? What is the purity of the
methanol? How to increase the purity?
From the results obtained, the top streams for DC1 and DC2 which are top1 streams
and out streams are not free from water, because there are still have the composition of
water inside top1 streams and out streams which is 0.5205 mol fractions of methanol
and 0.5204 mol fractions. To increase the purity, the number of stage for the column
can be increase, recycle back the product back to the distillation column or even
increase the number of reboiler.
 DISCUSSION
The objectives for this experiment is to understand the usage of valve and
distillation specification. This experiment involved the hydrogenation of carbon
dioxide in order to produce the Methanol. There are a few equipment that involved in
this experiment such as splitter, valve and distillation column. The function of
distillation column in this experiment is to separate a volatile vapour phase and a
liquid phase that vaporized involved.
The feed entered the system at 2700 kmol/hr with temperature and pressure at
25oC and 5.2 bar. The mole composition for the feed that enter the system is
equimolar. Then, the mixture flow into two separate distillation column but with one
distillation column maintained the pressure and another one with the pressure drop
which is from 5.2 bar to 1.01 bar by using valve. From the PFD at Figure 1, it shows
that the feed stream from the splitter is fed into the first distillation column (DC1) with
the maintained pressure which is at 5.2 bar and another stream that coming out from
the splitter which is feed 2, is flow through a valve in order to decrease the pressure
from 5.2 bar to 1.01 bar before entering the second distillation column (DC2).
The temperature at top1 stream is 131.3 oC and temperature at bottom stream is
153.0 oC. the temperature for both stream are different due to the separation process
that happened, the separation of the mixture depends on the relative volatility or
boiling point. In this experiment the methanol has lower boiling point, so it will
vaporized first and become the overhead product for DC1. For DC2, even though the
pressure at DC2 is lower than DC1 which is only at 1.01 bar but the pressure drop
does not affect the the composition but only affect the temperature. The overhead
temperature at stream out is 80.38 oC and the bottom temperature at stream bottom2 is
99.65 oC.
The process happen shows that the methanol is not free from water because at
vapor phase overhead outlet at DC1, the composition of methanol is 0.5205 and
composition of water is 0.4795. At vapor phase overhead outlet at DC2, the
composition of methanol is 0.5204 and composition of water is 0.4796. this process
could not achieve methanol free from water due to some errors that occur during run
the system.
 Manual calculation in distillation column
(Methanol)
The molar flowrate before entering
Split ratio = split vent flowrate / column flowrate = 0.5
2700 kmol/hr x 0.5 = 1350 kmol/hr to each of DC

Feed, Xf = 0.5
Product XD = 0.5205
Bottom XW = 0.4795
Taking basis, F, is 1350 kmol/hr is feed into the DC
Overall material balance :
F=D+W
1350 = D + W
W = 1350 D ------- (1)
Component Balance:
FXF = DXD + WXW
1350(0.5) = (0.5205)D +( 0.0093)W --------(2)
Substitute (1) into (2):
1350(0.5) = (0.5205)D +( 0.0093)(1350D)
FROM THE CALCULATION
D = 1295.86 kmol/hr and W = 54.14 kmol/hr which both satisfy the calculation
using Aspen Hysys and manually.

Pressure drop in valve

Cv of Methanol = 19.2
Q = 148.76 gal/min at feed2
Specific gravity of Methanol at 25 C, G = 0.7866
Q = Cv
P
G
P = (Q/Cv) ^2 x G
P = (148.76 /19.2 )^2 x 0.7866
P = 59.65 psi 411.27 kPa
the calculation approximately equivalent to pressure drop calculate in the
system.
 REFERENCES
1. Geankoplis, C. J. (2014). Transport Process & Separation Process Principles(includes
Unit Operations) fourth edition. Edinburgh: Pearson Education Limited.

2. (2016, OCTOBER 20th) Retrieved from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractionating_column

3. (2016, OCTOBER 19th) Retrieved from

http://controlguru.com/distillation-introduction-to-control/

4. (2016, OCTOBER 19th) Retrieved from

http://www.gewater.com/handbook/boiler_water_systems/ch_16_steampurity.jsp