ECH-158B

11th, July

ECH 158B
Separations and Unit Operations
HOMEWORK # 3
Prof. Ahmet Palazoglu
Student: Thinh Chu Van
ID-Student: CTTT-10210111
Problem 1. (10pts)
A standard TEMA internal floating-head heat-exchanger with one shell-pass and two tube-passes
is available. The shell is 23 and contains 238 tubes. The heat-exchanger cools 160,000 lb/hr
of concentrated (98%) sulfuric acid on the tube side from 230 0F to 130 0F using 260,000 lb/hr
of process cooling water on the shell side available at 90 0F. The tubes are 20 ft long with 1 OD
and BWG 18 arranged on a 1 triangular pitch (ID=0.902). Baffles are spaced 6 apart. You
may ignore the wall heat transfer resistance. The inside fouling heat-transfer coefficient would be
very small and can also be ignored. However, the outside fouling heat-transfer coefficient would
be significant for this heat-exchanger. Calculate this quantity (i.e., d oh,). Following data are
given:

Solution
We have the balance in heat transfer
(
(

)
(

Then
The log mean temperature different is
(

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11th, July

And

From the chart of LMTD weve got F=0.85

(

From data given, we can find out that

Di = 0.902 in
At = 0.639 in2
Area/ft = 0.236 ft2/ft
We have 20 238 tubes then total area is
A = 238*20*0.236=1123 ft2
The overall HTC coefficient is U = 94.2 Btu/hr.ft 2F
With inside film

Then hi = 247.97 Btu/hr.ft2F

With the outside tube

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11th, July

(
(

) (

Then

Then

So that the fouling coefficient is

Then

Problem 2. (10pts)
Hot process water at 100,000 lb/hr and 1600F is cooled with 120,000 lb/hr of cooling water at
900F, which is heated to 1200F in a 1-2 shell-and-tube heat-exchanger. The exchanger has 20 ft
steel tubes with 0.75 OD and 0.62 ID. The thermal conductivity of steel is 25.9 Btu/ft.hr.oF).
The film heat transfer coefficients are estimated as hi=200 Btu/ft2.hr.oF and ho= 200 Btu/ft2.hr.oF.
Estimate (i) the area for heat transfer, (ii) the minimum number of tubes required.
Solution
Hot Flow (water)
Ti = 160oF
To=90oF
M = 100,000 lb/hr

Cold flow
To = 120oF
M = 120,000 lb/hr
Cp = 1 Btu/lb.oF

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11th, July

Heat exchanger
L = 20 ft
OD = 0.75
ID = 0.62
k = 25.9 Btu/ft.hr.oF
ho = hi = 200 Btu/ft2.hr.oF

Question
A=?
Ntubes = ?

For cold flow

(

With hot flow

(

Then Th,o = 124 oF

The log mean temperature different
(

Where have

So from the chart of F-factor F=0.95 is acceptable

From

Then

And
(

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11th, July

Then Uo = 89 Btu/ft2.hr.oF
Then
The area of the tube have Di = 0.902 in so the Ai = 0.1623 ft2/ft
So the number of the tube is

Problem 3. (30pts)
(30pts) A sieve-plate column operating at atmospheric pressure is to produce nearly pure
methanol from an aqueous feed containing 40 mol % methanol. The distillate product is
estimated to be 5800 kg/h. The feed is at 1 atm and 250C. To calculate the ideal number of trays,
use McCabe-Thiele method and generate the XY diagram using AspenPlus. If the reflux ratio is
3.5, what is the methanol purity achieved in the distillate? Use the RadFrac module of AspenPlus
for this calculation. If the tray spacing is 18, calculate on paper the allowable vapor velocity and
the column diameter. State all your assumptions explicitly. (Hint: We need to estimate what
purity levels we expect to get at both distillate and bottoms streams. Let us target xD = 0.95, xB =
0.1
Solution
We plot the equilibrium diagram with the vertical at xB , xF , xD . There should be
extended to the diagonal of the diagram.

We draw the feed line. Here, f = 0, the feed line is vertical and is a continuation of line x = x F.

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11th, July

Then we plot the operating lines. The intercept of the rectifying line on the y axis is 0.95/(3.5 +
1) = 0.211. From the intersection of this operating line and the feed line the stripping line is
drawn.
Next, we draw the rectangular steps between the two operating lines and the equilibrium curve.
In this step, the transfer from the rectifying line to the stripping line is at the seventh step. By
counting steps it is found that, besides the reboiler, 11 ideal plates are needed and feed should be
introduced on the seventh plate from the top

Physical properties of methanol: MW is 32, NBP is 65C, and the density of vapor is

The density of methanol is 810 kg/m 3 at 0C and 792 kg/m 3 at 20C. At 65C, the estimated
density
is 750 kg/m 3. From the internet the surface tension of methanol at 65C, ( = 19
dyn/cm.)
Vapor velocity and column diameter the abscissa is
( )

For 18-in, tray spacing

Allowable vapor velocity

(

( )

Vapor flow rate

(

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11th, July

Cross-sectional area of column

Bubbling area = 6.3/2.23 = 2.83 m2
If the bubbling area is 0.7 of the total column area = 2.83/0.7 = 4.04 m 2
Column diameter: