Adiabatic Flash Drum with Binary Liquid Feed


Description
A high-pressure, hot, liquid mixture of methanol and water is fed into an adiabatic flash drum (or vapor-liquid separator). Because the flash drum pressure is below the bubble pressure, some of the liquid evaporates and the temperature decreases because energy is needed to evaporate the liquid. Thus, a vapor-liquid mixture in equilibrium exits the drum. You can vary the feed mole fraction of methanol, the feed temperature and flash drum pressure with sliders. This is a continuous process, but calculations are presented for 10 moles of feed. Material balances, an energy balance and Raoult’s law for vapor-liquid equilibrium are used to determine the amounts of liquid and vapor exiting the drum and the mole fractions in each phase.
This simulation runs on desktop using the free Wolfram Player. Download the Wolfram Player here.
View the source code for this simulation
About:
This simulation was made at the University of Colorado Boulder, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. Author(s): Derek Machalek, Rachael L. BaumannView the source code for this simulation
Instructional video