12/16/2016

OptimumRefluxRatio

OptimumRefluxRatio
Aswehadseenintheprevioussection,wewilluseneithertheminimumnortheinfiniterefluxratioforactualdesign.
Nonetheless,these2numbersareusefulinhelpingustoidentifythelower and upper limitsof"useable"refluxratio.
Intuitively,therefluxratiotobeusedshouldfallinbetweentheminimumandinfiniterefluxratios.SeetheFigurebelow.

WemustthereforeevaluatethetradeoffbetweenrefluxratioR,andnumberoftheoreticaltraysN.
Fornew design,therefluxratiotobeusedshouldbetheoptimum,orthemost economical,forwhichthetotal cost will
be the least.ThisisshownintheFigurebelow.
Notethatthereare2 componentsof total cost: fixed costs(suchasthoseforpurchaseofthedistillationcolumnand
internals,reboiler,condenser,andotherequipment)andoperating costs(costsassociatedwithoperationoftheplant,e.g.
utilitieslikecondensercoolingwater,reboilersteam,pumphorsepower,etc).

Atminimum reflux ratio,thefixed cost is infinite(duetoinfinitenumberofstagesrequired),buttheoperating cost is at

a minimum,becauseminimumamountofliquidistobehandled(e.g.consuminglesserpumphorsepower,lessercooling
capacity,etc).
Asreflux ratio increases,lessstagesarerequiredbutlargerequipmentarenowneededtohandletheincreasedreflux
liquidandreboiledvapourload.Thusthefixed cost initially decreasedbuteventually increase againwhenthereflux
ratioapproachestotalreflux.Thefixed cost this falls through a minimumandthenriseagaintoinfinity.Asforthe
operating cost,itwillcontinuetoincrease with increasing reflux ratio.
Thetotal cost,whichisthesumoffixedcostandoperatingcost,mustthereforepasses through a minimum.Thereflux
ratioatthisminimumtotalcostistheoptimum (or economical) reflux ratio.Typicallytheoptimumrefluxratiois
approximately1.2to1.5timesRmin.
[Treybal,R.E.,"MassTransferOperations",3rd.Ed.,McGrawHill,pp.387389&410412]

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