Separations

Separations are crucial in chemical engineering; a typical chemical plant is a chemical reactor surrounded by separators. Raw materials are pre-purified in separation devices and fed to the chemical reactor; unreacted feed is separated from the reaction products and recycled back to the reactor. Products must be further separated and purified before they can be sold. Chemical plants commonly have from 40% to 70% of both capital and operating costs in separations.

This page provides some interactive tools focused on separations to help understand the basis of these systems. It should not be taken as a complete resource as it will not go into full details for each separation (nor cover all separations), but you should be able to gain that information from the courses you are taking.

Have a look at the interactive graphs below:

van der Waals Equation of State

Examine the van-der-Waals equation of state and how it predicts the vapour and liquid properties.

Non-ideal properties using two-parameter Margules

Examine how the two-parameter Margules predict the non-ideal properties of a mixture.

Vapour-Liquid-Liquid Equlibrium Regular Solution Theory

Examine how the solubility of the components affects the vapour-liquid-liquid equlibrium as predicted by regular solution theory.

McCabe-Thiele Method

Examine how the McCabe-Thiele method can be used to calculate the number of ideal equlibrium stages for a distillation column.

Ponchon-Savarit Method

Examine how the Ponchon-Savarit method can be used to calculate the number of ideal equlibrium stages for a distillation column.

Complex Distillation Column Sequences

Examine the reduction in energy requirements for complex distillation column sequences.

Stripping

Examine how the McCabe-Thiele method can be modifed for a stripping column to predict the ideal number of equlibrium stages.

Scrubbing

Examine how the McCabe-Thiele method can be modifed for a scrubbing column to predict the ideal number of equlibrium stages.

Liquid-Liquid Extraction (Binary Assumption)

Examine how the McCabe-Thiele method can be modifed for a liquid-liquid extraction column to predict the ideal number of equlibrium stages.

Liquid-Liquid Extraction (Hunter-Nash)

Examine how the Hunter-Nash method can be used to calcualte the ideal number of stages for a mutually soluble ternary system.

Liquid-Liquid Extraction (Interactive Ternary Design)

Engage with this interactive tool to learn how to apply the Hunter-Nash method yourself to ternary liquid-liquid extraction.

Particle Size Distributions

Examine how we can clasify particle size distribtuions and represent their average size.

Single Particle Motion

Examine the rate of settling of particles with changes to the fluid and particle properties.

Particle Settling

Examine the local concentration of particles as different solids settle in batch settler.

Gravity Settler Design

Examine how the flux-flow method can be used to size a gravity settler.

Cyclone Performance

Examine how the grade efficiency and reduced grade efficiency curves for cyclones vary with their key parameter.

Stairmand Design

Examine how the fluid and particle properties affect the grade efficiency curves for the standard Stairmand cyclone designs.

Adsorption

Examine how the concentration of a gas changes in an adsorber and how the breakthrough curve vary with design parameters (for a linear isotherm model).