Quality of the Feed: The thermal condition of the feed plays an important role in the feed location and the number of plates required to achieve a particular level of separation.  For a given feed composition, find the bubble point and dew point.

 

Example 6.8:  A solution contains two components benzene and toluene.  The more-volatile component, benzene, is present at composition of 66.7 % on mass basis, whereas less-volatile component, toluene, is present at a composition of 33.3 %.  The feed enters the column at 40 °C.  Calculate the quality of the feed. The following information applies:

Bubble point of the solution is 94 °C

Specific heat of benzene, cpB, 32.8 cal/(mol·°C)

Specific heat of toluene, cpT, = 40.5 cal/(mol·°C)

Latent heat of vaporization of benzene, λB, = 7566 cal/mol

Latent heat of vaporization of toluene, λT, = 7912 cal/mol

 

Solution:

 

Heat required to vaporize one mole of benzene at feed temperature, HGB

= cpB(TB - TF) + λB = 32.8´(94 - 40) + 7566 = 9337.2 cal

Heat required to vaporize one mole of toluene at feed temperature, HGT

= cpT(TB - TF) + λT = 40.5´ (94 - 40) + 7910 = 10097 cal

Heat required to vaporize one mole of feed at feed temperature, HG

= xFHGB + (1 - xF)HGT = 0.667´9337.2 + (1 - 0.667) ´10097 = 9590.2 cal

Latent heat of vaporization of feed at bubble point, Hλ

= xFλB + (1 - xFT = 0.667´7566 + (1 - 0.667) ´7910 = 7680.6 cal

Quality of feed, q = HG/Hλ = 1.25