Dist-006 Revised: October 31, 2012

DSTWU – A Shortcut Distillation Model in Aspen Plus® V8.0

1. Lesson Objectives
 Learn how to use DSTWU to start distillation column design.
 Learn the strengths and limitations of shortcut methods

2. Prerequisites
 Aspen Plus V8.0

3. Background
DSTWU implements the following methods:

 Winn method to estimate minimum number of stages

 Underwood to calculate minimum reflux ratio
 Gilliland to relate actual number of stages and RR

DSTWU provides a very good starting point for distillation column design. Of course, we must be fully aware of
the two assumptions on which the above three methods are based:

 Constant relative volatilities

 Constant molar overflow

DSTWU should not be used for systems that significantly deviate from these two assumptions. For systems with
strongly non-ideal mixtures (e.g., ethanol-water), these shortcut methods won’t work because those two
assumptions just cannot represent those systems well.

If we need to design a column to separate a mixture of n-butane and cis-2-butene, DSTWU can be very helpful.
In this case we would like to design a column to recover 99% of n-butane and 1% of butene in the distillate
stream.

The examples presented are solely intended to illustrate specific concepts and principles. They may not
reflect an industrial application or real situation.

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Dist-006 Revised: October 31, 2012

4. Aspen Plus Solution

If you are unfamiliar with how to start Aspen Plus, select components, define methods, or construct a flowsheet,
consult Get Started Guide for New Users of Aspen Plus.pdf for instructions.

First we will create a simulation for the separation of n-butane and cis-2-butene using the DSTWU model.

4.01. Start a new simulation using the Blank Simulation template in Aspen Plus.

4.02. The Components | Specifications | Selection sheet is displayed. Enter N-BUTANE in the Component ID
column. Note that Component name and Alias are automatically filled for this component. Enter
BUTENE as Component ID for the second component. Since BUTENE cannot uniquely identify a
component, enter CIS-2-BUTENE as the Component name for the second component. Its Alias is
automatically filled in.

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Dist-006 Revised: October 31, 2012

4.03. Define methods. Go to the Methods | Specifications | Global sheet. Select PENG-ROB for Base
method.

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Dist-006 Revised: October 31, 2012

4.04. Go to the simulation environment and place a DSTWU block onto the Main Flowsheet. The DSTWU
model is located under the Columns tab in the Model Palette. Connect the inlet and outlet ports with
Material streams and rename them accordingly.

4.05. Specify feed streams. Double click on stream FEED or go to the Streams | FEED | Input | Mixed sheet.
Select Vapor Fraction and Pressure for Flash Type. Enter 1 for Pressure and 0.5 for Vapor fraction. In
the Composition frame, enter 50 for both N-BUTANE and BUTENE.

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Dist-006 Revised: October 31, 2012

4.06. Specify column operating conditions. Double click the column block on the Main Flowsheet or go to the
Blocks | DSTWU | Input | Specifications sheet. In the Column specifications frame, select the Reflux
ratio option and enter 2 for Reflux ratio. In the Pressure frame, enter 1 for both Condenser and
Reboiler. In the Key component recoveries frame, select N-BUTANE for Comp and enter 0.99 for Recov
for Light key. Select BUTENE for Comp and enter 0.01 for Recov for Heavy key.

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Dist-006 Revised: October 31, 2012

4.07. Run the simulation by pressing the F5 key. After running the simulation, you should receive an error for
the DSTWU block stating that the specified reflux ratio is less than the minimum reflux ratio. DSTWU
also took corrective action and calculated the actual reflux ratio based on the minimum reflux ratio.
Therefore, the results are valid despite the error message. Go to the Blocks | DSTWU | Results |
Summary sheet.

4.08. This table provides very useful design information including Minimum reflux ratio, Minimum number of
stages, and estimated duties. This table also provides an Actual reflux ratio and an Actual number of
stages. These values will serve as good design estimates for this separation.

4.09. Now, save the simulation. On the ribbon, click File and then click Save As to save the simulation as Dist-
006_DSTWU-C4-C4.bkp. Close the Aspen Plus simulation window.

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Dist-006 Revised: October 31, 2012

4.10. We will now create a simulation for the separation of ethanol and water using the DSTWU model. Start
another new simulation using the Blank Simulation template in Aspen Plus.

4.11. The Components | Specifications | Selection sheet is displayed. Enter WATER and ETHANOL in the
Component ID column.

4.12. Define methods. Go to the Methods | Specifications | Global sheet. Select ALL for Method filter.
Select UNIQ-RK for Base method.

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Dist-006 Revised: October 31, 2012

4.13. Press the Next Input button on the Quick Access Toolbar (or press the F4 key on your keyboard). Binary
parameters are automatically populated on the Methods | Parameters | Binary Interaction | UNIQ-1 |
Input sheet.

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Dist-006 Revised: October 31, 2012

4.14. Go to the Simulation environment and place a DSTWU block onto the Main Flowsheet. The DSTWU
model is located under the Columns tab in the Model Palette. Connect the inlet and outlet ports with
Material streams and name them accordingly.

4.15. Specify the feed stream. Go to the Streams | FEED | Input | Mixed sheet. Select Vapor Fraction and
Pressure for Flash Type. Enter 1 for Pressure and 0.5 for Vapor fraction. In the Composition frame,
enter 50 for both WATER and ETHANOL.

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Dist-006 Revised: October 31, 2012

4.16. Specify column operating conditions. Go to the Blocks | DSTWU | Input | Specifications sheet. In the
Column specifications frame, select the Reflux ratio option and enter 2 for Reflux ratio. In the Pressure
frame, enter 1 for both Condenser and Reboiler. In the Key component recoveries frame, select
ETHANOL for Comp and enter 0.99 for Recov for Light key. Select WATER for Comp and enter 0.01 for
Recov for Heavy key.

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Dist-006 Revised: October 31, 2012

4.17. Run the simulation by pressing the F5 key. There are error messages during simulation and the
calculated minimum number of stages is a negative number. Therefore, the results cannot be used. We
know that water and ethanol form an azeotrope and thus the assumption of constant relative volatility
is not valid for this system.

5. Conclusions
For mixtures where the following two assumptions are good approximations, the shortcut methods
implemented in DSTWU are very useful and efficient to get us started.

 Constant relative volatilities

 Constant molar overflow

For systems that significantly deviate from those two assumptions (e.g., ethanol-water), these shortcut methods
are not useful and we should not rely on results from these shortcut methods. For such cases, we need to use
more rigorous models (e.g., RadFrac).

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Dist-006 Revised: October 31, 2012

6. Copyright
Copyright © 2012 by Aspen Technology, Inc. (“AspenTech”). All rights reserved. This work may not be
reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of
AspenTech. ASPENTECH MAKES NO WARRANTY OR REPRESENTATION, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, WITH
RESPECT TO THIS WORK and assumes no liability for any errors or omissions. In no event will AspenTech be
liable to you for damages, including any loss of profits, lost savings, or other incidental or consequential
damages arising out of the use of the information contained in, or the digital files supplied with or for use with,
this work. This work and its contents are provided for educational purposes only.

AspenTech®, aspenONE®, and the Aspen leaf logo, are trademarks of Aspen Technology, Inc.. Brands and
product names mentioned in this documentation are trademarks or service marks of their respective companies.

12
Dist-007 Revised: October 31, 2012

Distl – A Shortcut Distillation Model in Aspen Plus® V8.0

1. Lesson Objectives
 Become familiar with the Distl model
 Learn the limitations of shortcut methods
 Learn how to move from Distl to RadFrac
 Design specifications in the RadFrac block

2. Prerequisites
 Aspen Plus V8.0
 Dist-006_DSTWU

3. Background
Distl is a distillation simulation block which uses Edmister’s method to calculate column compositions for a given
number of stages and reflux ratio. Distl is also based on the following two assumptions:

 Constant relative volatilities

 Constant molar overflow

We can use Distl to confirm results from Dist-006_DSTWU. In this tutorial, we will create a simulation in Aspen
Plus to separate n-butane and cis-2-butene using the following design results from module Dist-006_DSTWU.

Number of stages: 83
Feed stage: 46
Reflux ratio: 26.18
Distillate to feed mole ratio: 0.5
Condenser & Reboiler pressure: 1 bar
It is also interesting to check the results from Distl using RadFrac.

The examples presented are solely intended to illustrate specific concepts and principles. They may not
reflect an industrial application or real situation.

1
Dist-007 Revised: October 31, 2012

4. Aspen Plus Solution

If you are unfamiliar with how to start Aspen Plus, select components, define methods, or construct a flowsheet,
consult Get Started Guide for New Users of Aspen Plus.pdf for instructions.

4.01. Create a new simulation in Aspen Plus using the Blank Simulation template.

4.02. The Components | Specification | Selection sheet is displayed. Enter N-BUT-01 and CIS-2-01 for
Component ID. In the Component name column, enter N-BUTANE and CIS-2-BUTENE.

4.03. Define methods. Go to the Methods | Specifications | Global sheet and select PENG-ROB for Base
method.

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Dist-007 Revised: October 31, 2012

4.04. Create flowsheet. Go to the simulation environment and place a Distl block on the Main Flowsheet.
The Distl block is located under the Columns tab in the Model Palette. Connect the inlet and outlet
ports with material streams and rename them accordingly.

4.05. Define feed stream. Double click on stream FEED or go to the Streams | FEED | Input | Mixed sheet.
Select Vapor Fraction and Pressure for Flash Type. Enter 1 for Pressure and 0.5 for Vapor fraction. In
the Composition frame, enter 50 for both N-BUT-01 and CIS-2-01.

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Dist-007 Revised: October 31, 2012

4.06. Define block operating conditions. Double click on the column block or navigate to the Blocks | DISTL |
Input | Specifications sheet. Enter 83 for Number of stages, 46 for Feed stage, 26.18 for Reflux ratio
and 0.5 for Distillate to feed mole ratio. In the Pressure specifications frame, enter 1 for both
Condenser and Reboiler.

4.07. Go to the Setup | Report Options | Stream sheet. In the Fraction basis frame, check the Mole check
box.

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Dist-007 Revised: October 31, 2012

4.08. Press the F5 key to run the simulation. Go to the Blocks | DISTL | Results | Summary sheet to check the
results. You will see that the duties and stage temperatures are almost identical to the results from the
DSTWU simulation in module Dist-006_DSTWU.

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Dist-007 Revised: October 31, 2012

4.09. Check stream results. Go to the Blocks | DISTL | Stream Results | Material sheet. You will see that the
distillate and bottoms streams are close to but not quite reaching the desired purity of 99 mol%. Now,
we can move to rigorous distillation.

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Dist-007 Revised: October 31, 2012

4.10. Next we will create a simulation for this same separation using the RadFrac block. Create a new
simulation in Aspen Plus using Blank Simulation template.

4.11. Define Components and Methods the same as in the previous simulation file.

4.12. Create flowsheet. Go to the simulation environment and place a RadFrac block onto the Main
flowsheet. The RadFrac block is located under the Columns tab of the Model Palette. Connect the inlet
and outlet ports with Material streams and rename them accordingly. Note that stream DIST is
connected to the Liquid Distillate port (not the Vapor Distillate).

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Dist-007 Revised: October 31, 2012

4.13. Define feed streams. Double click on stream FEED or navigate to the Streams | FEED | Input | Mixed
sheet. Enter the same information for this stream as in the previous simulation (also shown below).

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Dist-007 Revised: October 31, 2012

4.14. Specify column operating conditions. Double click on the column block or navigate to the Blocks |
RADFRAC | Specifications | Setup | Configuration sheet. We use the same specifications for this
column as those previously used for the Distl block. Enter 83 for Number of stages. Select Total for
Condenser. Enter 50 for Distillate rate and 26.18 for Reflux ratio.

4.15. Go to the Blocks | RADFRAC | Specifications | Setup | Streams sheet. Enter 46 in the Stage column for
FEED.

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Dist-007 Revised: October 31, 2012

4.16. Go to the Blocks | RADFRAC | Specifications | Setup | Pressure sheet. Enter 1 for Stage 1 / Condenser
pressure.

4.17. Create design spec to achieve purity target by varying reflux ratio. In the navigation pane, select the
Blocks | RADFRAC | Specifications | Design Specifications node. The object manager for Design Specs
is displayed. Click the New… button to create a new Design Specs called 1.

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Dist-007 Revised: October 31, 2012

4.18. Go to the Blocks | RADFRAC | Specifications | Design Specifications | 1 | Specifications sheet. Select
Mole purity for Type and enter 0.99 for Target as shown below.

4.19. Go to the Blocks | RADFRAC | Specifications | Design Specifications | 1 | Components sheet. In the
Components frame, move N-BUT-01 to the Selected components list. In the Base components frame,
move all components to the Selected components list. Now, this sheet should look like the screenshot
below.

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Dist-007 Revised: October 31, 2012

4.20. Go to the Blocks | RADFRAC | Specifications | Design Specifications | 1 | Feed/Product Streams sheet.
In the Product streams frame, move DIST to the Selected stream list as shown below.

4.21. Now, we create a corresponding Vary section. In the navigation pane, select the Blocks | RADFRAC |
Vary node. The object manager for Vary is displayed. Click the New… button to create a new Vary
called 1.

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Dist-007 Revised: October 31, 2012

4.22. Go to the Blocks | RADFRAC | Specifications | Vary | 1 | Specifications sheet. Select Reflux ratio for
Type. Enter 1 for Lower bound and 200 for Upper bound. Now, this sheet should look like this.

4.23. Press the F5 key to run simulation and it completes without any error or warning. Go to the Blocks |
RADFRAC | Profiles | Compositions sheet. Select Liquid for View. Note that the purity of the liquid
from the top stage is 0.99 in mole fraction, which is consistent with the target we entered earlier.

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Dist-007 Revised: October 31, 2012

4.24. Go to the Blocks | RADFRAC | Results | Summary sheet to check results. The reflux ratio required to
produce a distillate stream with 99% mole purity of n-butane is 33.1252.

5. Conclusions
The DSTWU and Distl blocks are very useful for getting first approximations for column parameters. These
models are based on assumptions of constant relative volatilities and constant molar overflow and thus, their
results are not very accurate. Therefore, the natural next step is to use these column parameters and more
rigorous models (e.g., RadFrac) to obtain more accurate results.

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Dist-007 Revised: October 31, 2012

Again, for systems where constant relative volatility and constant molar overflow are not good approximations,
we should use rigorous distillation models (e.g., RadFrac) directly.

6. Copyright
Copyright © 2012 by Aspen Technology, Inc. (“AspenTech”). All rights reserved. This work may not be
reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of
AspenTech. ASPENTECH MAKES NO WARRANTY OR REPRESENTATION, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, WITH
RESPECT TO THIS WORK and assumes no liability for any errors or omissions. In no event will AspenTech be
liable to you for damages, including any loss of profits, lost savings, or other incidental or consequential
damages arising out of the use of the information contained in, or the digital files supplied with or for use with,
this work. This work and its contents are provided for educational purposes only.

AspenTech®, aspenONE®, and the Aspen leaf logo, are trademarks of Aspen Technology, Inc.. Brands and
product names mentioned in this documentation are trademarks or service marks of their respective companies.

15
Aspen Plus Help Session: Distillation
*Note: The following instructions assume certain knowledge of Aspen. If any of the instructions are
vague, or the instructor is moving too quickly, please let him/her know. They will be happy to
review or clarify any information.

In the following tutorial, SLC=Single left-click; SRC=Single right-click.

1. Select Aspen Plus User Interface under Program/Applications. When Aspen Plus window pops up,
select “Blank Simulation”. At the Connect to Engine Window, under Server Type select ‘Unix
Host’ and in the User Info, under Node Name, type ‘Sunblast’.

2. Enter username and password. Disregard Working Directory and enter. You will be informed
when the connection has been established.

Distillation Options:
The three different methods available in Aspen Plus are
a) DSTWU
b) DISTL
c) RADFRAC

B1
DIST

FEED

BOTTOM

DSTWU
This approach uses Winn-Underwood-Gilliland shortcut design calculations. It is designed for
a single feed and 2 product distillation column. Remember, for additional information regarding this
method, select the DSTWU icon and press F1.

Winn - estimates minimum # of stages

1
 Underwood - estimates minimum Reflux Ratio (RR)
Gilliland - relates actual number of stages and RR

In order to use this option you must specify the recovery of the light and heavy keys. DSTWU
calculates the minimum reflux ratio and minimum number of theoretical plates for the specified
recovery. It then calculates the actual reflux ratio for the specified number of stages, or
the actual number of stages for the specified reflux ratio, depending on which is entered. It also
determines the optimal feed location and reboiler and condenser duties. The model assumes constant
molar overflow and constant relative volatilities.

DSTWU Example

One hundred lbmol/hr of an equimolar mixture of ethane/ethylene is available at 25 C and 1

atm. This stream needs to be separated in a distillation column capable of recovering at least 99.6% of
the light key (ethylene) and 99.9% of the heavy key (ethane, entered as .001 recovery in distillate). The
column has a total of 40 stages. Calculate the minimum reflux ratio, actual reflux ratio, minimum
stages, and feed location for this column. Use RK Soave model. The whole column operates at 300
psi (Both Reboiler and Condenser are at 300 psi).
Answer: Min RR: 5.937 Actual RR: 19.96
Min stages: 34.09 Feed location: plate 24.22

Now suppose that the reflux ratio is specified at 20% above the minimum reflux. Calculate the
minimum and actual stages, minimum and actual reflux ratio, and feed location.

Answer: Min RR: 5.937 Actual RR: 7.12

Min stage: 34.09 Actual # Stage : 63.38
Feed plate location: 37.80

Note that the minimum RR and minimum stages are identical. This should be expected since these are
only a function of the specified recovery for the light and heavy key. Finally, we wish to see how the

2
RR ratio changes as a function of actual stages. From TPII class you should be aware that the RR and
the number of stages are inversely related. We want to monitor the RR for a range of 40 - 100 stages.
From the Data Browser, choose “Blocks” and then the appropriate block name. Select Input and then
the “Calculations Options” tab. Choose to “Generate table of reflux ratio vs number of theoretical
stages.” Enter 40 as the initial number of stages and 100 as the final number of stages. Select
“Increment size for number of stages” and enter 2. Press F4 or the ‘N→’ buttons on the toolbar and re-
run the simulation.
Note: your values must be above the minimum number of plates!
To see a plot, display the results data browser and select Blocks/”Block Name”/Results.
Choose the Reflux Ratio Profile tab. Designate the independent and dependent variables. SLC on the
independent variable column heading and press Ctrl+Alt+X. SLC on the dependent variable column
heading and press Ctrl+Alt+Y. You can also define the dependent and independent variables through
the “Plot” option on the upper pull down menu.

Block B3 (DSTWU) Results Reflux Ratio Profile

20

Reflux ratio
17.5
15
12.5
10
7.5

40 60 80 100
NSTAGE

3
DISTL

This approach is also for a single feed and 2 product distillation, but uses the Edmister method
to calculate product composition. You must use a column icon under “Distl” rather than DSTWU. If
you are modifying the previous example, you must delete the DSTWU block and replace it with a Distl
block, and then reconnect the streams. You’ll find this option by selecting a stream with the left mouse
(SLC), and then SRH (single right hold) with the right mouse. . To use this method, the following
must be specified:
Number of stages
Feed location
RR
Pressure profile
D:F (distillate to feed Ratio)

The results are the feed stage temperature, bottom stage temperature, top stage temperature, and feed
quality as well as the product composition. It also assumes constant molar overflow and constant
relative volatilities.
Basically, this method can be used when everything in the column is specified and you need to verify
the product results.

DISTL Example

Replace the DSTW block with the DISTL The same feed as the previous example enters a
column of 12 stages (including condenser and Reboiler), with the feed located at the 4th stage (from
the top, including the condenser). The column operates at 300 psi with a RR of 7 and a D:F ratio of
0.8. Calculate the product composition.

Distillate: ethane mole fraction = 0.384

Bottoms: ethane mole fraction = 0.965

4
Suppose that you would like to monitor the ethane composition at the bottom as a function of the
RR. In other words, we would increase or decrease the RR and see the effect it has on the
molar composition of the bottom stream. To do so we must perform a sensitivity analysis where we
will vary the RR from 7 to 60.

Go to the Data browser window and select the Model Analysis Tools folder, then the Sensitivity
folder, and then click “NEW” to create a new sensitivity analysis. Call it any ID you want. The next
screen has three tabs: define, vary, and tabulate.

In the define tab you create a new variable; click on “NEW” and call your variable XETHAN. The
variable definition window will pop-up. Fill the reference area as follows:

Type: mol-frac
Stream : BOTTOMS
Component: ethane
Leave Category as “All”, and Substream as (Mixed)

Press F4 or the ‘N→’ button twice or go the vary tab. Here we will tell aspen how to vary the
RR. Start by choosing clicking on the pull down menu and selecting “new “. Aspen will automatically
assign a variable number. Fill this form as follows:

Type: Block-Var (Block variable)

Block: name of your column
Variable: RR

Select the Range Option

Lower Limit: 7
Upper Limit: 60
Incr: 2

5
For your Report labels you may choose
Line 1: RR
Then Press F4 or the ‘N→’ button to go to the Tabulate tab and do the following:

Col: 1
Tabulate: XETHAN

You can bring up a list of variables by SRC on the Tabulated variable option, and selecting variable
list from the pop-up menu; then SLC. You can also click on the table format button to add labels to
your table. Press F4 or the ‘N→’ button.

Run the simulation and notice how Aspen solves each point. To see a plot, display the results data
browser and select Blocks/”Block Name”/Results. Choose the Reflux Ratio Profile tab. Designate the
independent and dependent variables. SLC on the independent variable column heading and press
Ctrl+Alt+X. SLC on the dependent variable column heading and press Ctrl+Alt+Y. You can also
define the dependent and independent variables through the “Plot” option on the menu. Choose Plot
from the menu and select Display Plot.

6
0.965 0.9675 0.97 0.9725 0.975 0.9775
Sensitivity S-1 Results Summary

XETHAN

5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60
VARY 1 RR

7
RADFRAC

RADFRAC is the ASPEN’s rigorous distillation method. No assumptions are made! Its can do:
absorption, stripping, extractive distillation, azeotropic distillation, and ordinary distillation. It is
capable of handling any number of feeds and side product streams. You’re probably better off starting
a new simulation since a lot of things will be different from the previous examples.

RADFRAC Example

Four hundred lbmol/hr of methylcyclohexane (MCH) and toluene (equimolar) is available at

220F and 20 psia. Since these two components have narrow boiling points, it is been proposed to use
phenol as an extractive agent to aid in the separation (phenol likes toluene more than MCH). Two
hundred lbmol/hr of phenol feed is available at 220 F and 20 psia. We intend to optimize the phenol
flow rate in such a way that MCH can be recovered with 97% purity in the distillate. The column has a
total of 22 stages with the phenol being fed at the 7th stage and the feed mixture at the 14th stage. It is
also desired to have a total distillate flow rate of 200 lbmol/hr.

The column operates at a pressure of 16 psi at the top and 20.2 at the bottom. The reflux ratio was
estimated at 8. Use the UNIFAC model. Connect the streams and your screen should look like the
following figure. Use the F4 key or the ‘N→’ button to input your components, property method and
the feed and phenol streams as in the previous examples (remember we use UNIFAC for this example).

DIST
REDFRAC

FEED
PHENOL

BOTTOM

8
 Pressing the F4 key or the ‘N→’ should take you to the distillation block. You should the Setup
options and Operating Specifications sections as follows:
Number of Stages: 22
Condenser: total (Vapor/liquid = 0)
(leave the rest as they are)
Distillate: 200 (lbmol/hr)
Reflux ratio: 8

Take a second to go over the options and see all the variables that you can choose (read the description
on the bottom). Press F4 or the ‘N→’ button, or go directly onto the Streams tab. The Streams tab
requires that you specify the feed locations which you would set as follows:

Feed: 14 above stage

Phenol: 7 above stage

Also, note that two options are available, above stage and on stage.
Above stage: Feed between two adjacent stages where the liquid flows to stage n and the vapor flows
to stage n - 1
On stage: Both, vapor and liquid flow to the same stage.

Press F4 or the ‘N→’ button, or go directly to the Pressure Tab. First select the Pressure profile option
from the view pull-down menu. Then enter the profile as follows:

Stage Pressure
1 16
22 20.2

Run the simulation to see how close we are to the process demand (97% MCH). Note the
iteration method used by the simulation engine. It is important to see if your calculations are
converging otherwise you can be there for a long time and get junk out.

9
It took 6 iterations for our simulation to converge. We obtained the following results:
Distillate: x_MCH = 0.88 x_tol = 0.12
Bottoms: x_MCH = 0.06x_tol = 0.44

A very useful feature of RADFRAC is that it keeps track of the behavior of all the species in all
the stages. The temperature, flows, pressures, enthalpies, vapor and liquid mole fractions, and
distribution coefficient profiles are all stored in a menu. From the Radfrac folded on the setup window,
click on the Profiles option. If you want to plot the profiles, you would first designate the independent
and dependent variables. SLC on the independent variable column heading (like stage#), and press
Ctrl+Alt+X (You may skip this step since stage # is the default independent variable for this case).
SLC on the dependent variable column heading (say liq flow) and press Ctrl+Alt+Y. You can also
define the dependent and independent variables through the “Plot” option on the upper pull down
menu. Another way of doing this is through the plot wizard option on the “Plot “ option on the upper
pull down menu. This option will let you customize your plots and it is worth to spend sometime
looking at it.

We still need to change the phenol flow rate to meet the process demand (97%). Note that we
can do a sensitivity analysis that will give us an idea what the flow rate should be approximately, but
since our intention is to calculate the actual flow rate of phenol we will perform a Design-Specification
analysis.

You may perform your design spec as shown in the previous tutorials or directly at the Radfrac
block. From the data browser click on Blocks\Radfrac\Design Spec and create a new ID at the object
manager. This ID has to be a number and we chose to call it “1” . The Specifications tab will appear
on which you should fill the following information:
On Design Specifications:
Type: Mole purity

10
On Specification:
Target: .97
Stream type as product should be selected

Move onto the next tab ( or Press F4 or the ‘N→’ button) and specify MCH as the component to be used
in the design. You do this on either the Base Components or the Available components menu, and then
clicking on the single right arrow, which moves the name of the component to the selected components
list.

Now we are ready to provide information on the manipulated variable, i.e. the amount of
Phenol. Press F4 or the ‘N→’ button or go directly to the Vary subfolder from your distillation block. At
the Object manager, create a new variable number just as above ( we called it “2”). The specifications
tab will appear and you would fill the information as follows:

Type: feed rate

Stream Name: phenol
Lower Bound: 200
Upper Bound: 5000

We have just specified that in order to reach our target value we will manipulate the phenol
molar flow rate between 200 and 5000 lbmol/hr hoping that the answer in this range (if not we can
always change it).
Run the simulation and note the number of iterations. If an error results re-initialize all blocks
and rerun it before you make any changes. For us it took 22 iterations to converge to a solution.
Answer:
Phenol flow rate: 1119 lbmol/hr
MCH mole frac: .9700

To view and print a table with your results, go to the results folder and select any of the result stream
subfolders. You should see a bottom named Stream Tables. Click and a table will show on the

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Process Flow Sheet window. You may also copy the figure and table on the clipboard by selecting
them with the mouse, using File\Copy or Ctrl+C, and the pasting them into other windows
Applications (Work, Word Perfect Power Point)

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