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Python-based Demonstration for Designing Distillation Columns for Ternary Mixtures

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Conference

2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Portland, Oregon

Publication Date

June 23, 2024

Start Date

June 23, 2024

End Date

July 12, 2024

Conference Session

Innovations in Experiments and Modeling

Tagged Division

Chemical Engineering Division (ChED)

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/47908

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Paper Authors

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John Rajadayakaran Edison The Johns Hopkins University

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Kellen Roddy The Johns Hopkins University

biography

Man Kit Ao The Johns Hopkins University

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Panwa Promtep The Johns Hopkins University

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Abstract

The typical capstone design project in chemical engineering involves designing a process to manufacture a commodity chemical. During this exercise students often find themselves in a position to use distillation columns for purifying ternary mixtures. They use a commercial process design software called Aspen Plus to complete the design. Aspen is a black box and students often are left wondering why some parameter choices resulted in a functioning column while others did not. We have built a Python based demonstration that will help students understand the fundamentals of ternary mixture phase behavior and the steps that happen under the hood in Aspen Plus while designing distillation columns for separating ternary mixtures. Our Python codebase which will be made available via PyPI can be used to design distillation columns for a mixture of any number of components. We have created Jupyter notebooks that uses this codebase to help students understand under what conditions a column for ternary mixture separation becomes feasible. We also have notebooks that describe how extractive distillation using a double feed column can be used to separate azeotropes.

I would like my paper to be consider for a regular session presentation.

Edison, J. R., & Roddy, K., & Ao, M. K., & Promtep, P. (2024, June), Python-based Demonstration for Designing Distillation Columns for Ternary Mixtures Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. https://peer.asee.org/47908

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