100 kmol/min of gas stream containing 45 wt % ethane (C2H6) and 55 wt% methane (CH4) is fed to a distillation column, where it is separated into an overhead product containing 90 mol % methane and a bottom product containing 98 mol % ethane. However, a customer wants to purchase a product contains 97 mol % methane. To produce this, the overhead product from the first column is fed to a second column. The overhead from the second column is the desired product and contains 98 % of the methane in the feed to this column, while the bottoms product from the second column is recycled to mix with the fresh gas stream before feeding back to the first column. a. Draw and label the flowchart from the description of this process. b. What is the purpose of recycle stream in this process? c. What is the separating agent used in this process?
100 kmol/min of gas stream containing 45 wt % ethane (C2H6) and 55 wt% methane (CH4) is
fed to a distillation column, where it is separated into an overhead product containing 90
mol % methane and a bottom product containing 98 mol % ethane. However, a customer
wants to purchase a product contains 97 mol % methane. To produce this, the overhead
product from the first column is fed to a second column. The overhead from the second
column is the desired product and contains 98 % of the methane in the feed to this column,
while the bottoms product from the second column is recycled to mix with the fresh gas
stream before feeding back to the first column.
a. Draw and label the flowchart from the description of this process.
b. What is the purpose of recycle stream in this process?
c. What is the separating agent used in this process?
Calculate:
a. The flowrates of the final product in kg/min. (1136.8 kg/min)
b. The flowrates (kmol/min) and the molar composition of the recycle stream. (6.91
kmol/min, 80 mol% ethane, 20 mol% methane)
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