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Dew Point calculations with an example

The dew point of the temperature at which a liquid begins to condense from a vapor. The calculation is very simple for a pure component it is the boiling point of the pure component. A simple equation like Antoines equation can be used to calculate this. For multicomponent mixtures, the vapor-phase composition Yi is given. If along with the vapor composition, the temperature is given, then we must increase the pressure till the first drop of liquid is formed. This is called Dew point pressure calculation. If the pressure is given, then we must decrease the temperature till the formation of liquid. This is called Dew point temperature calculation. In both the cases the temperature or Pressure is adjusted till the liquid composition of the liquid is equal to 1. Xi = 1.0 We shall calculate Dew point temperature calculations here. For an ideal mixture that follows Raoults law this becomes Antoines equation can be used to calculate the vapor pressure of each component. ( ) Where, P is the vapor pressure A, B and C are component specific constants T is the temperature

Let us calculate the Dew point temperature of a mixture of Benzene (0.3), Toluene (0.4) and m-Xylene (0.3) at a pressure of 1 bar.
The Antoines coefficient are given in the table below A 9.2806 9.3935 9.5188 B 2788.51 3096.52 3366.99 C -52.36 -53.67 -58.04

Benzene Toluene m-Xylene

Note: It is very important to pay attention to the UNITS of the temperature and Pressure as the parameters have been obtained by regression and the units are very important. Our coefficients are with temperature in K and pressure in Bars. To get a first estimate we can get the boiling point of each component by inverting the Antoines equation: ( ) BP (K) 352.8266 383.315 411.76

Benzene Toluene m-Xylene

Mole fraction averaged the first estimate is yi yiT Benzene 0.3 105.848 Toluene 0.4 153.326 m-Xylene 0.3 123.528 SUM 382.702 Calculate the vapor pressures at this temperature and sum the Liquid mole fractions: PVap yi/PVap xi=yiP/PVap Benzene 2.314785 0.129602 0.129602 Toluene 0.982652 0.407062 0.407062 m-Xylene 0.42658 0.703268 0.703268 P 0.806496 1.239932 Now take Benzene as or key component and get a new estimate of the temperature. We use the following equation: yi 0.3 0.4 0.3

Using the inverted Antoines equation we can now get a new estimate of the temperature as Tnew = 391.33 (K) PVap 2.870176 1.25006 0.558087 P yi/PVap 0.139364 0.239989 0.537551 1.090628 xi=yiP/PVap 0.139364 0.239989 0.537551 0.916903

Benzene Toluene m-Xylene

New vapor pressure of key (Benzene) component is recalculated

Using the inverted Antoines equation we can now get a new estimate of the temperature as Tnew = 387.8 (K) yi 0.3 0.4 0.3 Pvap 2.631674 1.134399 0.500769 P yi/Pvap 0.151995 0.264457 0.599079 0.984707 xi=yiP/Pvap 0.151995 0.264457 0.599079 1.015531

Benzene Toluene m-Xylene

We are getting close: New vapor pressure of key (Benzene) component is recalculated

Using the inverted Antoines equation we can now get a new estimate of the temperature as Tnew = 388.42 (K) yi 0.3 0.4 0.3 Pvap 2.672546 1.154134 0.510504 P yi/Pvap 0.14967 0.259935 0.587654 1.002748 xi=yiP/Pvap 0.14967 0.259935 0.587654 0.997259

Benzene Toluene m-Xylene

New vapor pressure of key (Benzene) component is recalculated

Using the inverted Antoines equation we can now get a new estimate of the temperature as Tnew = 388.312 (K) Since the temperature does not change by more than 0.2 (K) we have reached our solution: For grins we can calculate the sum of liquid mole fractions. yi 0.3 0.4 0.3 Pvap 2.672546 1.154134 0.510504 P yi/Pvap 0.14967 0.259935 0.587654 1.002748 xi=yiP/Pvap 0.14967 0.259935 0.587654 0.997259

Benzene Toluene m-Xylene

Thus our Dew Point Temperature for a mixture of Benzene (0.3), Toluene (0.4) and m-Xylene (0.3) at 1 Bar is 388.12K.

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