Chapter 12: Recycle, Bypass, Purge, And the industrial application

of Material Balances
Objectives:
1. Draw a flow diagram or sketch for problems involving recycle, bypass, and
purge.
2. Apply the 10-step strategy to solve steady-state problems involving recycle,
bypass, and/or purge streams.

3. Solving recycle problems involving reactors.

4. Explain the purpose of a recycle stream, a bypass stream, and a purge stream.

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Recycle
Recycle is an example of a multi-unit system. Most often used in reactive systems to
feed un-reacted reactants back into a reactor thereby achieving a higher conversion of
expensive reactants
Suppose we have the following chemical reaction taking place in a reactor,
AB
Since it is rare for any chemical reaction to proceed to completion,
some of A will remain in the product stream.
Feed
A

Reactor

Product
A, B

This is not an ideal situation as some unreacted A leaves in the product stream
(wasteful) and the final product is not very pure in B.
How can we improve this situation?
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Recycle
A B

200 kg A/min
110 kg A/min 30 kg B/min

Fresh Feed

10 kg A/min
100 kg B/min

Reactor

100 kg A/min
130 kg B/min

Separator

Recycle stream
90 kg A/min
30 kg B/min

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Recycle
Recycle is a common feature of chemical processes.
There are several reasons for using recycle a chemical process:

1. Recovery and reuse of unconsumed reactants

2. Recovery of catalyst

3. Dilution of a process stream

4. Control of a process variable

5. Circulation of a working fluid

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Bypass
Bypass is also an example of a multi-unit system and used in both reactive and nonreactive systems. A fraction of the feed to a process unit is diverted around the unit
and combined with the output stream, thus varying the composition and properties
of the product.

Feed

Process units

Product

Bypass

Chemical processes involving bypass streams are treated in exactly the same
manner as processes containing recycle streams: the flowsheet is drawn and
labeled, balances around the process unit or the stream mixing point following the
process unit are used to determine the unknown process variables.

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Purge
A problem that can occur in processes that involve recycle is that a material that enters the
process in the feed stream or is generated in the reactor may remain entirely in the recycle
stream rather than being carried out in the product stream.
To prevent this buildup, a portion of the recycle stream is withdrawn as a purge stream. This
is effective in eliminating the build-up of undesirable components, but also results in the
loss of some reactants.

In the process flowchart, a purge point is a simple splitter

the recycle stream before and after the purge point have the same composition
only one independent material balance in process.

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Flowsheet for Reaction with Recycle and/or Purge

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Example: Recycle stream

Based on the process drawn in the diagram, what is the kg recycle/kg feed if the amount of W
waste is 100 kg? The known compositions are inserted on the process diagram.
W(kg)
mass fr.
A 1
F (kg)
mass fr.
A 0.2
B 0.8

G (kg)
mass fr.
A 0.4
B 0.6

Process

Separator

P (kg)
mass fr.
A 0.05
B 0.95

R (kg)
Recycle A only: mass fr.
A 1.00

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Example: Distillation column

An equimolar liquid mixture of benzene and toluene is separated into two product streams by
distillation. Inside the column a liquid stream flows downward and vapour stream rises. At each point in
the column some of the liquid vapourizes and some of the vapour condenses. The vapour leaving the
top of the column, which contains 97 mole% benzene, is completely condensed and split into two equal
fractions: one is taken off as the overhead product stream, and the other (the reflux) is recycled to the
top of the column. The overhead product stream contains 89.2% of the benzene fed to the column.
The liquid leaving the bottom of the column is fed to a partial reboiler in which 45% of it is vapourized.
The vapour generated in the reboiler (the boilup) is recycled to become the rising vapour stream in the
column, and the residual reboiler liquid is taken off as the bottom product stream. The compositions of
the streams leaving the reboiler are governed by the relation

yB/(1-yB)
xB/(1-xB)

= 2.25

where yB and xB are the mole fractions of benzene in the vapour and liquid streams, respectively.
a) Take a basis of 100 mol fed to the column. Draw and completely label a flowchart, and for each of
the four systems (overall process, column, condenser and reboiler), do the degree-of-freedom
analysis.
b) Write in order the equations and Calculate the molar amounts of the overhead and bottoms
products, the mole fraction of benzene in the bottoms product, and the percentage recovery of toluene
in the bottoms product (100 x moles toluene in bottoms/mole toluene in feed).

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Distillation How it Works

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Test yourself: An Evaporator with purge stream

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Example: An evaporative Crystallization process

Forty-five hundred kilograms per hour of a solution that is one-third K2CrO4 by mass is joined by a recycle
stream containing 36.4% K2CrO4, and the combined stream is fed into an evaporator. The concentrated
stream leaving the evaporator contains 49.4% K2CrO4; this stream is fed into a crystallizer in which it is
cooled (causing crystals of K2CrO4 to come out of solution) and then filtered. The filter cake consists of
K2CrO4 crystals and a solution that contains 36.4% K2CrO4 by mass; the crystals account for 95% of the total
mass of the filter cake. The solution that passes through the filter, also 36.4% K2CrO4, is the recycle stream.
Calculate the rate of evaporation, the rate of production of crystalline K2CrO4, the feed rates that the
evaporator and the crystallizer must be designed to handle, and the recycle ratio (mass of recycle)/(mass of
fresh feed).

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Reaction with Product Separation and Recycle

A recycle stream is introduced to recover and reuse unreacted reactants. Two definitions of
reactant conversion are used in the analysis of chemical reactors with product separation
and recycle of unconsumed reactants:
reactant input to process - reactant output from process
Overall Conversion =

100
reactant input to process

reactant input to reactor - reactant output from reactor

Single -Pass Conversion=

100

reactant input to reactor

The recycle stream allows operation of the reactor at low single-pass conversion, and
have high overall conversion for the system.
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Reaction with Product Separation and Recycle

Consider the Reaction A B, with the process scheme shown below:

Overall Conversion = 75-0 100 =100%

75
Single Pass Conversion = 100- 25 100 =75%
100

Reaction and Multiple-Unit Steady-State Processes:

Same procedures as before except that
Some subsystems will contain reactions and some wont
Subsystems with reaction (generally reactor and the overall system)
Use individual component flows around the reactor
Include stoichiometry and generation/consumption (for molar balances)
Subsystems without reaction (mixer, splitter, separator)
Input=output (moles are conserved, no generation/consumption terms)
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Example: Material balance with recycle and purge with a reaction

Methanol is produced in the reaction of carbon dioxide and hydrogen:
CO2 + 3H2 CH3OH + H2O
The fresh feed to the process contains hydrogen, carbon dioxide, and 0.400 mole%
inerts (I). The reactor effluent passes to a condenser that removes all the methanol
and water formed and none of the reactants or inerts. The latter substances are
recycled to the reactor. To avoid buildup of the inerts in the system, a purge stream is
withdrawn from the recycle.
The feed to the reactor (not the fresh feed to the process) contains 28.0 mole% CO2,
70.0 mole% H2, and 2.00 mole% inerts. The single-pass conversion of hydrogen is
60.0%. Calculate the molar flow rates and molar compositions of the fresh feed, the
total feed to the reactor, the recycle stream, and the purge stream for a methanol
production rate of 155 kmol CH3OH/h.

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Example: Material balance with recycle and reaction

Perchloric acid (HClO4) can be prepared as shown in the diagram below from Ba(ClO4)2
and H2SO4. Sulfuric acid is supplied in 20 % excess to react with Ba(ClO4)2. If 17400 lb
HClO4 leave the separator and the recycle is 6125 lb Ba(ClO4)2 over the time period,
calculate:
a. The overall conversion of Ba(ClO4)2.
b. The lb of HClO4 leaving the seperator per lb of feed.
c. The lb of H2SO4 entering the reactor.
d. The per pass conversion of Ba(ClO4)2.

Note: 20 % H2SO4 is based on the total Ba(ClO4)2 entering the reactor:

Ba(ClO4)2 + H2SO4

BaSO4 + 2HClO4

MW:
Ba(ClO4)2:336
BaSO4: 233
H2SO4: 98
HClO4: 100.5

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Test yourself: Material balance with recycle and reaction

Many chemicals generate emissions of volatile compounds that need to be controlled. In the
process shown in the accompanying figure, the CO in the exhaust is substantially reduced by
separating it from the reactor effluent and recycling the unreacted CO together with the
reactant. Although the product is proprietary, information is provided that the fresh feed
stream contains 40 % reactant, 50 % inert and 10 % CO, and that on reaction 2 moles of
reactant yield 2.5 moles of product. Conversion of the reactant to product is 73 % on one pass
through the reactor, and 90 % for the over all process. The recycle stream contains 80 % CO
and 20 % reactant. Calculate the ratio of moles of the recycle stream to moles of the product
stream.

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