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RadFrac for Dummies: A How to Guide on Aspen Plus

DISTILL FEED DIST

BOTTOMS

This example will show how to use Radfrac on Aspen Plus to model distillation columns. The feed shown in the diagram above will consist of 50 lbmol/hr of Methanol and 50 lbmol/hr of water. A purity of 99.5% is desired in both the bottoms and distillate product streams using a reflux ratio of 1.5.

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If you dont know how to log on to Aspen Plus, please see the Getting Started on Aspen Plus manual. Choose the Template Option Click OK.

This window allows you to select a particular simulation option. For this example, select the General with English Units option. Also, make sure that the option in the Run Type box displays Flowsheet Click OK

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Each time Aspen Plus is opened and a new file is created or an existing file is opened this login window appears. Enter Unix host for the server type, sylvan.che.sdsmt.edu for the node name, and your correct User name and Password. Click OK Another window will appear indicating the connection was established. Click OK.

Aspen Plus automatically assigns labels to every stream and block. To turn this option off, click on the Tools menu in the toolbar and select Options. In the Options window, click on the folder tab labeled Flowsheet. Next, click on these boxes under the "Stream and Block labels." The check marks in the boxes should disappear indicating that these options are disabled. Click 'OK' when through.

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To start the simulation, click on the Columns tab found in the selection of pieces of equipment. Go to the down arrow to the right of the RadFrac selection. Click on Fract1, the second picture from the left in the top row. Next, move the cursor into the white area and click on the desired position for the column. A prompt should appear asking to input the block ID, for this example Dist was chosen.

The Feed, Distill and Bottoms streams need to be created. To create the streams, first click on the Material Streams box at the bottom left corner of the window. Red and blue arrows appear around the column. A red arrow signifies a stream that is required for a design specification; blue arrows signify an optional stream.

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Click on the red arrow on the left side of the column to add your feed stream. For this simulation there is only one feed stream, if there were more feed streams use the blue arrow on the left of the column to add more streams. Enter Feed in the ID box when prompted for this simulation.

We next need to add the product streams. Only one of the red arrows needs to be chosen at the top of the column. Chose the bottom of the two red arrows at the top of the column. This column will have a total condenser and therefore liquid distillate. Label the top product stream Distill. Next add the bottom product stream using the red arrow. Label the product Bottoms. All the necessary streams have been added and numerical data can now be entered.

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Now we are ready to begin entering the necessary numerical data. Click on the Next button to begin entering the data. This button is blue and is located in the tool bar at the top of the window.

Click OK. If this box doesnt appear it is because your flowsheet isnt complete. A box will then appear telling you what part of the flowsheet you are missing.

This box should appear and a title for this simulation can now be entered although is not mandatory for this simulation. Click on the Next button to continue entering numerical data. If this box doesnt appear you can go to Setup on the left-hand side of the box and click on that.

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The Components box will be the next to appear. This allows us to enter all of the components that will be present within our system; in this simulation they will be Methanol and Water.

Type Methanol under the column Component ID and press the Enter key.

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AspenPlus will now search its database and attempt to match a chemical name with the Component ID that was entered. If this happens the other three boxes (Type, Component Name, and Formula) will fill automatically and other components can then be entered.

Enter Water in the second row under Component ID and hit Enter to fill the other three boxes. We now have entered all the components necessary for this simulation. Hit the Next button to proceed.

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The next screen to appear is the Property Specifications sheet. This allows us to choose the base method that we want to use for the calculations AspenPlus will perform. We will select NRTL for this simulation. Click Next.

The next screen to appear will show the interaction parameters for the components in our system using the base method we selected. If you are happy with this numbers (and we sure hope you are) click Next.

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A prompt screen will appear asking if we want to enter any more data or change the property specifications. Since everything is good to go, click OK.

Now its time to begin entering the physical data for the system. The first screen that will appear will be for the Feed stream. Before we actually start entering data lets go over a couple of the different available options.

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There are 3 State Variables that we are allowed to choose from Temperature, Pressure, or Vapor Fraction. 2 of these 3 must be specified. Click on the arrow on the right side of Temperature or Pressure Box to alternate between the choices.

The units can be changed for any variable by simply clicking on the arrow on the right side of the unit box. This will bring up a list of different units to choose from. For this example we will use degrees Celsius for temperature and atmospheres for the pressure.

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Change the units of Temperature to Celsius and enter 25. Also set the pressure in the stream equal to 1 atm. As stated in the problem, the feed flowrate to the column needs to be set at 100 lbmol/hr. Enter that here.

The next required input involves setting the Composition for the feed stream. Click on the arrow on the right hand side of the box to view all of the different options for defining the composition. Choose MoleFrac.

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The problem statement calls for a 50/50 split between the two components in the feed. Enter 0.5 in both boxes and then hit Next. The feed stream is now complete.

Now is the time well all been waiting for, designing the actual column. The first step is to get at least a rough estimate for the required number of stages needed.

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To do this, were going to use AspenPlus to generate a TXY plot and use it to do a quick McCabe-Thile diagram. At the top of the screen under Tools, click on Analysis, Property, and Binary.

Click on this arrow and select T-xy as the type of analysis you want performed. The pressure must also be equal to the operating pressure of your column so enter 1 atm. Whenever you are ready, click on Go.

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AspenPlus should generate this liquid/vapor equilibrium plot for Methanol and Water at 1 atm. The X-axis is the molefrac of Methanol, so the extreme left and extreme right represent pure Water and MeOH respectively. Notice that there are no azeotropes between the two so perfect separation is theoretically possible.

This diagram can give us an estimate of how many equilibrium stages are necessary by using the McCabeThiele method. Unfortunately, we cannot show you the actual drawing but trust us; it takes about 7 equilibrium stages. After the graph has been made and looked at you can close all three windows that are for the graph.

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Enter 10 for the Number of Stages because our column will not be operating at 100% efficiency. We will optimize this number a little bit further down the road.

Click on the arrow on the right hand side of the Condenser box to display the condenser candidates. As mentioned earlier this column will have a Total condenser.

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Click on the arrow on the right hand side of one of the operating specification boxes to display all of the alternatives. For this example, were going to choose to set the Reflux Ratio and Distillate rate since methanol is the component we are worried about recovering and it has a lower boiling point than water.

Because there are no azeotropes, the Distillate Flowrate of methanol can be set to the same number of moles as the entering flowrate, 50 lbmol/hr. The normal range of Reflux Ratios is from 1.25 - 1.8 for most applications. Enter 1.5 and press Next to continue.

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The next screen asks to specify the Feed Stage . If youre not certain of the location a safe bet is usually somewhere in the middle. This is another area that will be optimized later. For now, well enter 5 and press Next.

We are now required to enter the Pressure at which the column will operate. Change the units to atmospheres by clicking the arrow on the right hand side of the units box, and type a 1 in the box on the left. If data is already available for Pressure Drop in the column, it can be entered. For this simulation we will address the pressure drop in the column a little later on in our program.

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Instead of clicking on Next, which would bring up a prompt to run the simulation, click on the Efficiencies folder. Our column isnt perfect but what really ever is. Normal efficiencies range from 50-80% and there are shortcut methods found in literature to determine efficiency of a column.

We want Murphree-type efficiency, so click on the circle to the left to highlight it. Click on the Vapor-Liquid tab to continue.

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Next were going to set the efficiency for one stage of the column. AspenPlus will then be able to calculate the other stages efficiencies from our given benchmark. Enter 5 for the stage and 0.7 for the efficiency.

The next step is for us to set the type of trays that our column will consist of. Click on the Tray Sizing folder on the left to get to this screen. Click New to continue.

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A box will appear prompting you for a section number. Click OK to continue.

This screen allows us to choose from a list of possible types of trays within our column. Enter a 2 in the starting stage and a 9 in the ending stage because there are 10 stages in our column as both the condenser and reboiler count as stages.

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For this simulation, we are going to choose Bubble-Cap trays. Click on the box to the right of Tray Type to see the list of available trays. Well leave the number of passes and tray spacing as they are. Click on the Tray Rating folder on the left. Click new to continue.

Another prompt will appear to choose a section number, click OK. Enter 2 and 9 again respectively for the starting and ending stages along with Bubble cap for the Tray Type . An estimate for the Diameter of the trays is now required. Enter 1.5 ft.

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Click on the Design/Pdrop tab to continue. Click on the box directly to the left of Update section pressure profile to have AspenPlus calculate the pressure drop in the column.

Just one final detail and well be ready to run our simulation. Double-click on the Setup folder, then click on Report Options and finally click on the Stream tab. Click on the box to the left of Mole in the Fraction Basis Column. AspenPlus will now report the Mole fraction of each stream, 99.5% is the goal. Click Next.

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Heres the moment weve been waiting for. Were ready to run our simulation. Click OK.

The control panel will appear display the iterations as AspenPlus finds solutions for our simulation. The calculations should complete normally. Click on the blue folder with the check mark to view the results.

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Click on Streams to view the results for each of the three streams. Use the arrows on the left and bottom of the stream report to look through all of the results. We achieved 94.2% purity in both product streams. Not quite up to the spec of 99.5%, lets find out what we can optimize to meet our goal.

Double-click on the blue Blocks folder and then also on Dist . Next, go to the top menu bar and click on Plot and then Plot Wizard. Plot Wizard takes the profiles AspenPlus generated for the column and turns them into pretty little charts.

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A welcoming screen will appear, click next to move onto this screen. The first plot we want to look at is the liquid composition inside the column. Click on Composition and hit Next.

Click on the double arrows pointing to the right to select both components to be in the plot. Next click the circle next to Liquid under Select Phase. Clicking on Next again brings up different plot options. Nothing on the next set of options needs to be changed. Click Finish to view the plot.

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This plot can tell us a couple of different things. First off, there are no level spots in the diagram so we dont have any extra stages. Also, notice the little dip in the middle on stage 5, our feed stage. This means that we could possibly increase our separation by changing the location of the feed tray. These are two areas where we could optimize our column.

Lets start to optimize by changing the number of stages in our column. Close all the results folders and click on the Blocks and Dist folders respectively to return to the column Setup screen. Under Configuration, change the number of stages from 10 to 13 while leaving the feed stream on stage 5 for the time being.

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We also need to change the number of stages with respect to our Tray Sizing and Tray Rating. Go into the 1 below each folder respectively and change the ending stage to 12. Were all set up, so click Next to run the simulation again. Click OK to continue.

Upon completion click on the blue folder again and go under Results Summary and then Streams. The results show that we now have 94.9% purity in each of the product streams. Moving in the right direction but still not up to the desired specs. Lets take a look at the Liquid Composition diagram

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Double-click on the blue Blocks folder and then on the blue Dist folder to look at the results for the column. Go to Plot at the top of the screen and click on Plot Wizard. Hit Next through the welcoming screen and click on the Composition plot. Choose to plot Both Components in the Liquid phase and hit Finish.

From this plot it is obvious that our feed stage is a little bit too low. We want the composition to be smooth lines without any humps or bumps in the middle. Close the Results folder and lets go adjust our feed stage.

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Back under the Blocks/Dist folders, click on Setup and then the Streams tab at the top of the screen. Change your feed plate from 5 to 6 and click next. Once again check your Liquid Composition diagram using Plot Wizard as done in previous steps. Is the hump gone from the middle? If not continue this procedure until the curves are smooth. (Hint: 9 might be the answer)

After youve determined the optimum feed plate location (HINT: 9) your plot should look like this. Next check your stream results to see if we have achieved the desired purity in our Methanol Stream.

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Unfortunately we still havent reached the desired purity in our product streams. But we did increase the purity by 3% to 97.5% by optimizing the location of the feed plate. Since the reflux ratio is given at 1.5 in the problem statement, the only other option is to continue to increase the number of stages in our column.

Return to the Setup screen under the Blocks/Dist folder. Click on the Configuration tab at the top and increase the number of stages in the column. Also, go under the Tray Sizing and Tray Rating folders and change the ending stage on each to one stage less than the actual number of stages that you entered here.

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Next click on the Streams tab and change the location of the feed plate. Click on Next to run the simulation, then check the liquid composition diagram to be sure that it is in the optimum position. If it is, check the results. Continue this procedure until you meet the given purity spec.

Theres the magic number, 99.5%! The final configuration of the column has 21 bubble-cap trays with the feed plate on stage 16. Now that we have our column set up, lets look at a couple of the other options that are available.

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AspenPlus has also calculated the Diameter of the column. On the Results page, click on Blocks, Dist , Tray Sizing, and 1. Next, click on the Results tab at the top of the screen. This screen shows a calculated diameter of around 2 feet for our column.

There are a couple of different ways that we can look at the pressure drop within the column. The first is by clicking on the Tray Rating folder and opening 1. Click on the Results tab at the top and use the arrows on the right to move down until the Section Pressure Drop is shown. Since this is the only section, the pressure drop for our column is about 4.5 psi. By clicking on the psi box you can also change the pressure units.

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The other way we can observe the pressure drop is by using Plot Wizard to create a graph. Go to Plot Wizard and click on the Pressure graph. Choose the desired units and click Finish. A graph similar to this one should be created showing the pressure profile in the column. The temperature profile can also be created in a similar manner.

Congratulations! You have finished the race and youre probably not even half as tired as this guy, he looks beat. Now you can enter components, feed streams, column data and generate results for all of your own simulations. Feel free to brag to all of your friends now about your superior knowledge of Radfrac, youve earned it. You are truly a champion. Peace and Love, Bj

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