Assignment # 1

Oil And Gas production and processing

Submitted to
Dr. Fahad Rehman
Submitted by
Omer Sultan
(DDP-SP13-BEC-O73)
Date
23 September 2016

Distillation
It is a separation technique in which mass transfer and heat transfer both phenomena take place
simultaneously which result into the separation of components present in the mixture.
The components which are separated through this technique, they must have difference in their
boiling points.
There are two main types of distillation

Conventional Distillation
Non-conventional distillation
(Distillation: Final Report by the ABCM/BCPMA Distillatio Panel Incorporating the Proc.
of the Symp. Held London)

Conventional distillation
Conventional distillation is further divided in following types
1 Differential Distillation
2 Continuous Distillations
a- Flash Distillation
b- Fractionation Distillation
Differential Distillation
In this type of distillation, whole mixture is
heated so that the component having low boiling
point goes into the vapors where these vapors
enters into the condenser where they are
liquefied.
Continuous distillation
This type of distillation is countercurrent
operation. It is basically a multistage operation.
The equipments of this type of distillation are
given below in figure
(Chemical Engineering by Coulson and
Richardson Vol 2)
Flash distillation

It is a continuous process in which we vaporize a definite amount of vapors which is in equilibrium

with liquid .
These vapors are sent into a still (Separator) where reduction in pressure takes place. In this separator
there is much time for liquid and vapors to make equilibrium. After making equilibrium, vapors are
sent to condenser from the top of the separator so that the separation takes place.
Fractionation distillation
In this type feed is continuously added in the column and on the topside and bottom side, products are
obtained.
Reflux ratio is very much important in this distillation. If reflux ratio is high than purity of products
would be high but the re-boiler duty will increase which result into more energy consumption. On the
other hand if reflux ratio is low than product quality will suffer.
(Chemical Engineering- A comprehensive approach by Kripal S. Lakhi Narosa Publishing house)

Non-conventional distillation

1. Azeotropic distillation
2. Steam distillation
Azeotropic distillation
If a mixture has two components which have close boiling points than normal or conventional
distillation is not possible for their separation.
For such cases a solvent is added in this mixture which has different solubility for these components.
When solvent dissolve one of the components from this mixture than distillation is done.
Steam Distillation
The process of steam distillation is used when material has high boiling points and decomposition
may take place. Steam is passed through the liquid
(Chemical Engineering by Coulson and Richardson Vol 2)

McCabe Thiele Method

In this method an equilibrium curve is drawn between the vapor concentration and gass
concentration on graph.

A top operating line and bottom operating line is drawn on the graph paper.
Where these lines intersect each other that is feed point.
Now draw a horizontal line from product point to equilibrium curve and move
vertically downward. Draw such line up to the bottoms product concentration.
This number of steps will be the number of trays of distillation column.

(Chemical Engineering- A comprehensive approach by Kripal S. Lakhi Narosa Publishing house)

Lewis Solel Method

It is basically a hit and trial method.
We use equilibrium curve and both equations (Top operating line equation and bottom
operating line equation).
When we reach near to the desired concentrations of top and bottom product that we stop
doing further claculations.
With the help of softwares, this method has become very useful and we get number of
itterations without any error.
(Chemical Engineering by Coulson and Richardson Vol 2)
Underwood Fenskes Method
The number of plates for desired separation can be found by using following equation

It is majorly used for multi-component distillation.

For this equation we decide components into two categories one is light key components and
other one is heavy key component.
https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0471574171

Ross Taylor, R. Krishna - 1993

References