The South African based petrochemical company, SASOL, operates three large plants for the recovery and purification of the chemical 1-hexene. The thermodynamic models available in commercial simulation packages fail to predict or correlate the plant data presently observed by SASOL. The focus of this project is the accruement of comprehensive and accurate modelling parameters that would assist SASOL in optimizing the operation of the three plants and meet their purity specifications. The experimental requirements of the project are the measurement of isothermal vapour-liquid equilibrium (VLE) data for selected binary systems, using a dynamic still. The binary systems investigated were 1-hexene + n-methylpyrrolidone (NMP) at 40, 62 and 90 °C, water + NMP at 70, 90 and 107 °C and 1-hexene + 3methylcyclopentene (3MCP) at 40, 50 and 60 °C. With respect to the modelling of the VLE data, the combined (gamma-phi) and direct (phi-phi) regression procedures were utilized. The results of the analysis show the combined method as the more flexible of the two, when used for low pressure systems. The excess Gibbs energy correlations investigated were the Margules, Van Laar, Wilson, NRTL and UNIQUAC. The NRTL and Van Laar models dominated the modelling results across the range of temperatures for each binary system and for both the direct and combined methods of data regression. The experimental data for the systems of water (1) + NMP (2) at 107 °C and at 70 °C were compared to literature data. The first system showed excellent correlation with the literature results while the second plot at 70 °C showed a positive bias of the experimental data between xj of 0.3 and 0.8. Thermodynamic consistency tests for the VLE data are also required to verify the accuracy of the data. For this project, the point and direct (Van Ness) consistency tests were used as the area test was considered as too mild. All systems passed the point and direct tests for the combined method and therefore verify the thermodynamic consistency of the experimental data. The systems failed in most cases for the direct method as the combined method is the more flexible of the two modelling methods. / Thesis (M.Sc.Eng.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2007.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ukzn/oai:http://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za:10413/2358 |
| Date | January 2007 |
| Creators | Hirawan, Ranjeetha. |
| Contributors | Ramjugernath, Deresh D., Raal, Johan David. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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