Jordan University of Science & Technology

Chemical Engineering Department

CHE454 -COMPUTER APPLICATIONS LAB FOR CHEMICAL ENGINEERS – Fall 2020/2021

Module #4: Separators

Learning Outcomes: At the end of this Lab, you should be able to:
1- install, define and converge flash separator
2- install, define and converge 3-phase separator
3- install, define and converge a tank separator
4- install, define and converge a component splitter
5- How to perform a case study showing the effect of operating conditions on some target variables.
Background:

The Separator divides the vessel contents into its constituent vapor and liquid phases. The vapour and
liquid in the vessel are allowed to reach equilibrium, before they are separated.

Four types of separators will be discussed in this lab:

1- Flash Separator:
Description: Multiple feeds, one vapor and one liquid product stream. In Steady-State mode, the
SEPARATOR divides the vessel contents into its constituent vapor and liquid phases.

2- 3- phase Separator
Description: Multiple feeds, one vapor and two liquid product streams. The 3-PHASE SEPARATOR
operation divides the vessel contents into its constituent vapor, light liquid and heavy liquid phases.

3- Tank Separator:
Description: Multiple feeds, and one liquid product stream. The TANK is generally used to simulate liquid
surge vessels.

4- Component splitter
Description: A material feed stream is separated into two component streams based on the parameters and
split fractions that you supply.

Flash, 3- phase and tank separator:

The FLASH SEPARATOR, 3- PHASE SEPARATOR and tank separator have the ability to back-calculate results.
In addition to the standard application, the SEPARATOR can also use a known product composition to determine
the composition(s) of the other product stream(s), and by a balance the feed composition
In order to back-calculate with the SEPARATOR, the following information must be specified:

➢ One product composition

➢ The temperature or pressure of a product stream
➢ Two (2-phase Separators) or three (3-phase Separators) flows

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Component splitter:

The Component Splitter satisfies the material balance for each component:

𝑓𝑖 = 𝑎𝑖 + 𝑏𝑖
Where:
fi = Molar flow of the i-th component in the feed
ai = Molar flow of the i-th component in the overhead
bi = Molar flow in the i-th component in the bottoms

The molar flows going to the overhead and bottoms are calculated as:

𝑎𝑖 = 𝑥𝑖 . 𝑓𝑖
𝑏𝑖 = (1 − 𝑥𝑖 ). 𝑓𝑖
Where:
xi = Split, or fraction of component i going to the overhead

Once the composition, vapor fraction and pressure of the outlet streams are known, a P-VF flash is performed to
obtain the temperatures and heat flows.

An overall heat balance is performed to obtain the energy stream heat flow:

ℎ𝐸 = ℎ𝐹 − ℎ𝑂 − ℎ𝐵
Where:
hE = Enthalpy of unknown Energy Stream
hF = Enthalpy of Feed Stream
hO = Enthalpy of Overhead Stream
hB = Enthalpy of Bottoms Stream
1.1 Flash, 3- phase and Tank Separator Tabs:

1.1.1 Design Tab

The Design tab contains four pages:
➢ Connections
➢ Parameters
➢ User Variables
➢ Notes

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Connection Page

The Figure below shows the different connection pages for the three operations:

Figure 1

Parameters Page

The Parameters page allows you to specify the Pressure Drop across the vessel

Physical Parameters
The Physical Parameters associated with this operation are the Pressure Drop across the vessel (Delta P)
and the Vessel Volume. The pressure drop is defined as:

𝑃 = 𝑃𝑉 = 𝑃𝐿 = 𝑃𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑑 − 𝐷𝑃
Where: P = Vessel pressure
Pv = Pressure of vapor product stream (not applicable for Tank)
Pl = Pressure of liquid product stream(s)
Pfeed = Pressure of feed stream
DP = Pressure drop in vessel (Delta P)
Note: The default pressure drop across the vessel is zero.

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The amount of holdup in the vessel can be defined as:
𝑷𝑽(%𝑭𝒖𝒍𝒍)
𝑯𝒐𝒍𝒅𝒖𝒑 = 𝑽𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒆𝒍 𝑽𝒐𝒍𝒖𝒎𝒆 ∗
𝟏𝟎𝟎
Where: PV (%Full) is the liquid level in the vessel at time t.
Note: The default vessel volume is 2 m3.

1.1.2 Reactions Tab

Reaction Sets may be attached to the SEPARATOR, 3-PHASE SEPARATOR, or TANK Operations.

Figure 2

1.1.3 Rating Tab

The rating tab contains:

➢ Sizing page: On this g page, you can define the geometry of the unit operation.

➢ Heat Loss page: This page allows you to specify which Heat Loss Model you want to
implement and to define the parameters associated with each model.

1.1.4 Work sheet Tab

It contains a summary of the information available in the stream property view for all the streams attached
to the unit operation.

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1.1.5 Dynamic Tab

Information available on this page is relevant only to cases in Dynamics mode.

1.2 Component Splitter Tabs:

1.2.1 Design Tab

The Design tab contains four pages:

a) Connections b) Parameters c) Split d) User e) Variables Notes

Connections Page
On the Connections page, you can specify an unlimited number of feed streams to the Component Splitter.

Figure 3

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Parameters Page
This page displays the stream parameters that must be specified. Included are the vapor fraction and
pressure of the Overhead and Bottoms streams.

Figure 4

Splits Page
The Splits, or separation fractions ranging from 0 to 1, must be specified for each component in the
Overhead stream exiting the Component Splitter. The quantity in the bottoms product is set once the
overhead fraction is known.

Figure 5

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1.2.2 Rating Tab
You are not able to provide any information for the Component Splitter on the Rating tab when in steady
state.

1.2.3 Worksheet Tab

It contains a summary of the information available in the stream property view for all the streams attached
to the unit operation

1.2.4 Dynamic Tab:

Information available on this page is relevant only to cases in Dynamics mode.

1.3 Illustrative Example (Flash separator)

Let us consider the example below to illustrate the operation of Flash separator in HYSYS.
o
We have a stream containing 15% ethane, 20% propane, 60% i-butane and 5% n-butane at 50 F and
atmospheric pressure, and a flow rate of 100 lbmole/hr. This stream is to be compressed to 50 psia, and
o
then cooled to 32 F. The resulting vapor and liquid are to be separated as the two product streams. What
are the flow rates and compositions of these two streams?

1.3.1 Defining the Simulation Basis

Figure 6: Illustrative example

➢ Enter the following values in the specified fluid package view:

On this page… Select…

Property Package Peng-Robinson
Components Ethane, propane, i-butane, n-butane

➢ Click the Enter Simulation Environment button when you are ready to start building the simulation.

1.3.2 Adding a Feed Stream

➢ Add a new Material stream with the following values.

In this cell… Enter…
Name Gas
Temperature 50 Fo

Pressure 1 atm

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 Molar Flow 100 lbmole/hr
Compositions ethane – 15%
propane – 20%
i-butane – 60%
n-butane – 5%

1.3.3 Adding a Compressor

➢ Double-click on the Compressor button on the Object

➢ On the Connections page, enter the following information

Figure 7

➢ Go to the Worksheet tab. At the Conditions page, complete the page as shown in the Figure 7. The pressure
for the Comp Gas is 50 psia.

Figure 8

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 1.3.4 Adding a Cooler

➢ Double-click on the Cooler button on the Object Palette

➢ On the Connections page, enter the following information:

Figure 9

➢ Switch to the Parameters page and complete the page as shown in the Figure 9. The pressure drop is 0 psia

Figure 10

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➢ Go to the Worksheet tab. At the Conditions page, complete the page as shown in the Figure 10. The
temperature for the Cool Gas is 32oF

Figure 11

1.3.5 Adding a Flash Separator

➢ Double-click on the Separator button on the Object Palette.
➢ On the Connections page, enter the following information:

Figure 12

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➢ Go to the Worksheet tab to preview the result as shown in the Figure 13and Figure 14.

Figure 13

Figure 144

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Exercise: After completing the example (1.3), fill in the following table:

Stream Top Bottom

Flow Rate

Ethane composition

Propane composition

i-Butane composition

n-Butane composition

1.4 Illustrative Example (Component Splitter)

A stream consists of Ethylene, HCL, C2H5Cl and N2 is to be separated using component splitter such that the top
stream is free from C2H5Cl and the bottom streams contains only C2H5Cl.

The feed stream has the following conditions:

In this cell… Enter…
Name Feed
Temperature 25 oC
Pressure 1 atm
Molar flow rate
Ethylene: 5
(kgmole/hr)
HCL: 8.34
C2H5Cl: 45
N2: 3.34
The pressures of the top and bottom streams are
atmospheric and the temperatures of the top stream same as feed temperature.

Use HYSYS to fill the following table and then to estimate the mass fraction for each component in the top stream.

Top Stream mass fraction for:

Name Feed Top Bottom Ethylene=
HCL=
Pressure [kPa] 101.325 101.325 101.325 C2H5Cl=
N2=
Temperature [C] 25 25

Mass Flow [kgmole/h] 61.68

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1.5 Case Study: Flash Separator, Compressor and Heat Exchanger with case study.

Figure 15: Case study

Based on the given data:

a. Simulate the process above using Aspen HYSYS
b. Perform a case study showing the effect of FEED temperature on the molar flow rate of stream Vap V-100
and the shaft work,
c.

1.5.1 Data Process

1. In the Session Preferences property view, set the unit set to SI.

2. In the Component List property view, select the following components: C1, C2, C3 and i-C4.

3. In the Fluid Package property view, define a Peng Robinson Stryjek Vera (PRSV) property package.
4. Specify streams feed

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5. Precooled temperature: -6.1 oC
6. Enter the Simulation Environment and add the following unit operations to the flow sheet.

7. Add a Heat Exchanger

8. Add Expanders

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 9. Add Compressor

Additional Practice: 100 kmol/h of a mixture containing 10, 20, 30 and 40 mol% of propane, n-butan, n-
pentan and n-hexane, respectively, is preheated before entering the separator.
If the liquid mol fraction of the mixture is 80%, calculate the composition of both liquid and vapor phases
and the temperature of the vapor–liquid mixture at 700 kPa. Initial temperature of the mixture is 25◦C,
and the pressure drop can be neglected.

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