MANIPAL UNIVERISTY JAIPUR
DEPARTMENT OF BIOTECHNOLOGY &
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
CE3103 – PROCESS MODELING AND SIMULATION
LAB
III YEAR, 5TH SEMESTER, 2024
LAB #5
TITLE - INTRODUCTION TO ASPEN HYSYS
INSTRUCTOR:
Instructor Name – Prof. (Dr.) Manisha Sharma
Made By – Shaswat Goyal (229101002)
Lab Carried On:14th November, 2024
Report Submitted On: -21st November, 2024
Process Modelling and Simulation Lab
LAB 5: PROCESS SIMULATION CASE STUDY IV
Acknowledgement
The lab material has been adapted from the tutorials of Prof. Vishnu Pareek, Curtin University,
Australia and is in continuation to Lab 4.
1. Aim
The aim of this lab is to:
• Perform Rigorous Distillation simulations
2. Case study: Multicomponent distillation problem
A mixture of alcohols gets formed when carbon monoxide reacts with hydrogen. After
initial distillation steps to remove methanol and heavy alcohols, a stream of 100 lbmol/hr
of saturated liquid at 20 psia with the following composition remains:
Component mol%
ethanol 25
n-propanol 50
isobutanol 10
n-butanol 15
This mixture is to be separated into three desired product streams according to the following
specifications:
1. Ethanol rich stream: 98 mol% ethanol with a recovery of at least 98%.
2. N-propanol rich stream: containing mostly n-propanol and virtually all the remaining
ethanol, but no more than 2% of the isobutanol in the feed mixture.
3. Butanols rich stream: containing all the n-butanol, at least 98% of the isobutanol in the
feed, and no more than 1% of the n-propanol in the feed mixture.
Two distillation columns, operating at moderate pressures, are used for the separation:
We will look at this problem in several stages:
1. Translating the product specifications above into split fractions used in HYSYS.
2. Choosing a property method using the Property Method Selection Assistant.
3. Establishing appropriate pressures at which to operate columns D1 and D2 by using
simple component separators to perform flash calculations.
4. Using the column pressures found in 2 to do a shortcut design.
5. Then later, rigorously simulating the column designs using the different distillation
columns available in HYSYS (can also customize your column in HYSYS, if needed),
then refining the columns, if necessary, so that they satisfy the specifications.
3. Rigorous Distillation column simulation
Shortcut design followed by rigorous distillation column simulation is typical. Design
refinement, sensitivity analysis and optimisation of this model are the usual next steps.
Briefly view the Help information on distillation columns to learn about how to specify different
parameters for the column convergence.
Based on the shortcut design information in the last lab, follow the below mentioned steps for
rigorous distillation column simulation:
Short Cut Distillation recommendations Column D1 Column D2
Number of stages (rounded up) 42 24
Feed stage (to nearest integer) 24.10 12
Distillate flowrate in lbmol/hr (to 1 dp) 74.70 24.99
Reflux ratio (to 2 dp) 2.21 3.549
1. Select “Distillation Column” unit from the Object Palette.
2. Connect all inlet/outlet streams for Column D1. Make sure you select “Total Condenser.”
3. Connect energy streams for the Column.
4. Enter number of stages and feed stages (Short Cut Distillation recommendations). Make
sure the Solver is on Active Mode to enable you to make these changes.
5. Press next to go to “Reboiler Configuration” design page.
6. Leave the reboiler configuration at its default setting.
7. Press next to go to “Pressure Profile” design page.
8. Enter condenser and reboiler pressure as 20 psia.
9. Press next to go to “Optional Estimates” design page.
10. Do not enter anything in temperature estimation page.
11. Press next to go to “Specifications” design page.
12. Enter liquid rate (i.e. distillate rate) and reflux ratio (Short Cut Distillation
recommendations). Make sure you select the correct units. Use molar flow basis.
13. Click on Done to exit Column D1 design page.
14. Make sure the feed stream to Column D1 is converged. Then go to Column D1 design page,
and click on “Run” to converge the column (Also, follow the Monitor in Design Page to
learn about design spec and degree of freedom for convergence).
15. Do the same with Column D2, and incorporate the Short Cut Distillation recommendations
for that column.
16. After converging both columns, find the following results:
TABLE 1: MATERIAL STREAMS
Name units DIS2 DIS1 BOT2 BOT1 FEED
Vapor Fraction 0 0 0 0 0
Temperature C 96.99032 122.0136 86.23992 105.5015 101.5701
Pressure kPa 137.8952 137.8952 137.8952 137.8952 137.8952
Molar Flow kgmole/h 33.8842 11.4755 11.32991 22.55429 45.3597
Mass Flow kg/h 1878.152 847.7952 522.7977 1355.354 2725.947
Liquid Volume Flow ft3/hr 82.72662 36.96547 23.19302 59.53361 119.6921
Heat Flow Mkcal/h -2.29436 -0.84443 -0.72726 -1.56278 -3.14459
TABLE 2: MASTER COMPONENT MOLE FLOWS
Name DIS1 BOT1 DIS2 BOT2 FEED
Master Comp Molar Flow (Ethanol) [lbmole/hr] 25.00 0 24.8501 0.1541 25
Master Comp Molar Flow (1-Propanol) 49.5556 0.4402 0.1299 49.4266 50
[lbmole/hr]
Master Comp Molar Flow (i-Butanol) 0.14193 22.6941 0 0.1392 10
[lbmole/hr]
Master Comp Molar Flow (1-Butanol) 0 15 0 0 15
[lbmole/hr]
TABLE 3 : COMPOSITIONS
feed dis1 bot1 dis2 bot2
Comp Mole Frac
(Ethanol) 0.25 0.334667059 1.01919E-09 0.99477779 0.00306738
Comp Mole Frac (1-
Propanol) 0.5 0.663435691 0.017416544 0.005222039 0.99408239
Comp Mole Frac (i-
Butanol) 0.1 0.00189658 0.389674108 1.71237E-07 0.00284922
Comp Mole Frac (1-
Butanol) 0.15 6.70488E-07 0.592909347 1.11308E-13 1.0073E-06
TABLE 4 : ENERGY STREAMS
Unit cd1 rb1 cd2 rb2
Heat Flow Mkcal/h 1.053352 1.059135 0.5939 0.598218
Look over your results. Aside from viewing stream and summary results, you can plot several
types of profiles in the columns.
Go to Performance section of column D1, then select Plot – and plot the composition profile in
the column.
Add the figure here: FIG 1: COMPOSITION vs TRAY POSITION
The result should look like the following:
From the plot above, comment on the composition profile of Column 1 on:
• the components in distillate:
• Ethanol (Red): This component has the highest mole fraction at the top trays of the
column, indicating it is the dominant component in the distillate.
• 1-Propanol (Green): Its mole fraction decreases significantly towards the top of the
column, showing a much lower concentration in the distillate compared to ethanol.
• 1-Butanol (Blue): Its mole fraction is very low in the distillate and increases only toward
the lower trays.
• 1-Butanol (Pink): Like the heavier components, it has a negligible presence in the
distillate.
• the components in bottom product:
• Ethanol (Red): Its mole fraction is very low in the bottom product, indicating effective
separation and recovery in the distillate.
• 1-Propanol (Green): The mole fraction increases toward the bottom of the column,
showing a higher concentration in the bottom product compared to the top.
• 1-Butanol (Blue): Its mole fraction is dominant in the lower trays, indicating it is a key
component in the bottom product.
• 1-Butanol (Pink): Its mole fraction also rises sharply toward the bottom trays, making it
another major component in the bottom product.
• the suitability of feed stage location:
If the feed stage is located at tray 24, it is suboptimal for efficient separation. At this location,
the feed is introduced closer to the stripping section, where heavier components dominate.
This forces lighter components, such as ethanol, to travel further upward, overloading the
rectification section and requiring more reflux to achieve distillate purity. Similarly, heavier
components like 1-butanol may not have sufficient stages below to fully separate into the
bottom product, causing contamination. Additionally, energy requirements for the reboiler
and condenser increase due to this mismatch. To optimize the process, the feed stage should
be closer to the transition zone (~tray 15-20), where the composition gradients of light and
heavy components are better aligned for separation.
• recommended feed stage
A feed stage around tray 17 or 18 would likely be ideal, as it aligns with the transition zone.
This placement minimizes energy requirements, optimizes separation efficiency, and
reduces contamination in both the distillate and bottom product.
4. Improving the design
Consider column D2. The total distillate contains 24.57 lbmol/hr ethanol and 0.43 lbmol/hr n-
propanol. This corresponds to an ethanol product purity of 98.28% (higher than what expected
in last tute). Suppose you want to increase the purity further to 99.5%. The reflux ratio can be
varied to achieve this desired distillate purity.
Select Adjust from the Object Palette. Now specify Adjusted Variable and Target Variable in
the Connections page. Go to Select Var, and select Spec Value -Reflux Ratio as Adjusted
variable for D2 object. Similarly, select Master Component Mole fraction- Ethanol as Target
variable for DIS 2 objects. Specify the Target Value as 0.995 and provide step size of 1 in
Parameters section. Click Start.
Review the stream results and confirm that the distillate from the second column is now 99.5
mol% ethanol as required. The reflux ratio needs to be increased from 3.54 to 4.969, which can
be verified from Monitors section.
From the plot, comment on the reflux ratio required to achieve the specified ethanol purity:
FIG 2: MAIN FLOWSHEET FOR RIGOROUS DISTL UNIT
Reflux ratio increased to:
4.804
utility increased for:
Ethanol composition in distillate 2 in column 2 is increased to 0.9948
Explore some of the other input and results options available in distillation column. These
include specifying pressure drops, using stage efficiencies, doing hydraulic calculations for
designing or rating tray, specifying reactions in the column, and so on. It can be used for
azeotropic distillation, three-phase systems, reactive distillation, all this may be useful in the
Design Project unit.
Check out HYSYS’s other Columns in the Model Library – it has a lot of strength in the
separation area.
