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Assignment Title:

Vapour Liquid Equilibrium

Subject Number:

CHEN9007

Subject Name:

Advanced Thermodynamics and reactor engineering

Student Name:

Rocky Tran

Lecturer/Tutor:

Anthony Stickland

Due Date:

16th October,2015

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Date 16/10/15

Vapour Liquid Equilibrium of

Diethyl Ether and Ethylene

Rocky Tran
587276

Executive Summary
The vapour liquid equilibrium behaviour of diethyl ether and ethylene is modelled and the mixture is
determined whether it is ideal or not. The mixture is simulated using the Antione equation and Aspen
under isothermal and isobaric conditions. A mixture of diethyl ether and ethylene is easily separable
as the vapour pressure of ethane is much higher than diethyl ether. An inlet feed with an ethylene
liquid fraction of 0.5 requires 2 theoretical stages under both isothermal and isobaric conditions
assuming Raoults and Daltons laws apply. Modelling on Aspen using an NRTL fluid package
indicates that the mixture is ideal with activity coefficients equal to 1.
Vapour Pressure of Diethyl Ether and Ethylene
Vapour pressures are calculated using the Antione equation which is shown in equation (1). In the
Antione equation P represents pressure which is in units kPa, T represents temperature in Celsius
and Antione coefficients are represented by A,B and C.
log10 =

,
+

(1)

All Antione coefficients for Ethylene and Diethyl ether and shown in Table (1) below. The
temperature ranges where these values are applicable are also shown in the table. All Antione
coefficients are obtained from Yaws et Al. (2005).

Component
Diethyl ether
Ethylene

A
6.966
7.046

B
649.806
1112.55

C
262.73
232.657

Tmin
-169.14oC
-116.3oC

Tmax
9.21oC
193.55oC

The vapour pressures of the two components are plotted between -116oC 9.2oC and shown in
Figure (1). From this data, this gives a Tavg value of -53.4oC (219.6K) and a geometric mean pressure
of 29.92 kPa.

Vapour pressure of Ethylene and Diethyl ether at different

temperatures
Vapour Pressure (kPa)

10000
1000
100
10
1

Ethylene

0.1
Diethyl
Ether

0.01
0.001
0.0001
150

170

190

210

230

250

270

290

Temperature (K)
Figure 1 Vapour pressures of Ethylene and diethyl ether using Antione equation between temperature range of -116 - 9.2C
(157K 282.2K)

Vapour Liquid Equilibrium under isobaric and isothermal conditions

The mixture of diethyl ether and ethylene is assumed to be to ideal therefore Raoults and Daltons
laws are applicable. From Raoults Law the pressure in the liquid phase can be calculated according
to equation (2) while the pressure in the vapour phase can be calculated according to equation (3).
Component A is diethyl ether and component B is ethylene, Pvap represent the vapour pressures of
either component A or B and xb represents the liquid fraction of ethylene.

=
=

+ (1 )

1
,

1
+

(2)

,
(3)

Pressure vs composition at constant

temperature
Pressure (kPa)

1000
800
600
Liquid

400

Vapour

200
0
0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

Mole Fraction
Figure 2 The liquid and vapour fractions at different pressures at an isothermal temperature of 219.6K assuming Raoults
and Daltons laws apply

In Figure (2), the mixture is modelled under isothermal conditions at the average temperature of
219.6K. The corresponding liquid and vapour fractions are also shown in Figure (3) under isothermal
conditions calculated using equation (4). The vapour fraction is represented by yi while the liquid
fraction is represented by xi .
=

Figure 3 Liquid and Vapour

compositions in the liquid and
vapour phases assuming
Raoults and Daltons Law
applies at a constant
temperature of 219.6K

70.61
,
969.69 + 0.9222

(4)

Similarly, the mixture is modelled under isobaric conditions under the geometric mean pressure of
29.92 kPa. The liquid fractions can be calculated according to equation (5) while the vapour fractions
can be calculated by equation (6). Figure (4) shows the variations of liquid and vapour fractions
under different temperatures. Figure (5) shows the vapour liquid composition diagram.

(5)

(6)

Temperature vs composition at constant pressure

300
280

Temperature (K)

260
240
220
200
180
160
140
0

0.2

0.4

0.6

Mole Fraction

0.8

Figure 4 The liquid and vapour fractions at different temperatures at an isobaric pressure of 29.92 kPa assuming Raoults
and Daltons laws apply

Liquid/Vapour Compositions at constant pressure

Vapour Fraction of Ethene

1
0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5

Vapour

0.4

Liquid

0.3
0.2
0.1
0
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4 0.45 0.5 0.55 0.6 0.65 0.7 0.75 0.8 0.85 0.9 0.95 1

Liquid Fraction of Ethene

Figure 5 Liquid and Vapour compositions in the liquid and vapour phases assuming Raoults and Daltons Law applies at a constant
pressure of 29.92 kPa

Vapour Liquid Separation

A mixture with an ethylene liquid fraction of 0.5 is assumed to fed into the distillation column and
the theoretical number of plates are determined. The desired vapour fraction of ethylene is 0.99 in
the distillate while the liquid fraction of ethylene should be less than 0.01 in the bottoms product.
Figure (6) shows the distillation process under isothermal conditions. For each stage the
corresponding pressures are calculated and shown in Figure (7). The theoretical number of stages
needed is 2.

Figure 6 Distillation of mixture with ethylene liquid fraction of 0.5 under isothermal conditions assuming Raoults and
Daltons Law applies.

FIgure 7 Pressures at each stage of the distillation with an inlet ethylene liquid fraction of 0.5. An ideal mixture is assumed
so Raoults and Daltons laws apply.

The distillation process is also simulated under an isobaric pressure of 29.92 kPa. From Figure (8) the
number of theoretical stages needed is 2. Figure (9) shows the temperature of each stage of the
distillation process.

Figure 8 Distillation of mixture with ethylene liquid fraction of 0.5 under isobaric conditions assuming Raoults and Daltons
Law applies.

Figure 9 Temperatures at each stage of the distillation with an inlet ethylene liquid fraction of 0.5. An ideal mixture is
assumed so Raoults and Daltons laws apply.

Simulation of Ethylene and Diethyl Ether Mixture

The calculations performed using the Antione equation were based on an ideal mixture. However, a
non ideal solution have an effect on the number of stages needed in distillation as it may
increase/decrease the number of stages. The ethylene and diethyl ether mixture is modelled on
Aspen and the T-x-y diagram is shown in Figure (10). The mixture is modelled using an NRTL fluid
package. From Figure (10) we observe a similar diagram as Figure (9) which may highlight ideal
behaviour. In Table (2) the values of the activity coefficients are given by gamma. Therefore, an
assumption of an ideal solution is valid.

Figure 10 Aspen simulation of an ethylene and diethyl ether mixture assuming constant pressure of 29.92 kPa using an
NRTL fluid package.
Table 2 Values of activity coefficients for Aspen simulation using a NRTL fluid package.

Conclusion
The mixture of ethylene and diethyl ether were successfully modelled. Initially the mixture was
modelled as an ideal mixture using Raoults and Daltons laws which were used to calculate vapour
and liquid fractions. The vapour pressure of ethylene is extremely high therefore the mole fraction
of ethylene in the vapour phase is usually 1. The activity coefficients of 1 demonstrated in Aspen
indicate that the mixture can be approximated by an ideal mixture. Two theoretical stages are
needed to separate an inlet feed mixture with an ethylene liquid fraction of 0.5.
References
Yaws, G.L, Narasimhan, P.K & Gabula, C. 2005. Yaws Handbook of Antione Coefficients for Vapor
Pressure. Knovel, Oxford, UK.

Appendices
Derivation of 3
+ = 1

=1

1
=

Derivation of 4

= 970.61,

= 0.922

= (970.61) + (1 )(0.922)
= 969.69 + 0.9222

970.61
969.69 + 0.9222

Derivation of 5

= +

+ ( )

( )