This paper extends
application of the Margules-based phase-equilibrium
uncertainty method to a system exhibiting a heterogeneous azeotrope.
The author developed the method in order to provide practicing engineers
with an intuitive and easy-to-apply procedure to quantitatively relate
process-design uncertainties to uncertainties in correlated physical
properties, specifically nonideal phase equilibrium. The methodology
was first applied to two case studies(1) a propylene–propane
superfractionator for which small changes in correlated relative volatilities
have a large effect on the design of the distillation column; and
(2) a dehexanizer column that separates a mixture containing many
close-boiling hydrocarbon componentsand demonstrated that
the proposed method provides quantitative insight into the effect
of property uncertainties for both these diverse process designs and
helps to quantify the safety factors that need to be imposed upon
the design. In a subsequent study, the methodology was applied to
a distillation train that separates the acetone–chloroform–benzene
ternary mixture, which contains one maximum-boiling azeotrope, and
showed that the approach quantifies the effect of property uncertainties
on utility consumption and also identifies limits on operating variables
(specifically minimum recycle flow). In this paper, the Margules perturbation
method is applied to the separation of the water + 1-butanol binary
mixture. The application is complex because this binary exhibits liquid–liquid
equilibrium and forms a minimum-boiling azeotrope, and the typical
separation scheme includes a decanter as well as two distillation
columns. Further, the chosen activity-coefficient model is unable
to correlate the data within measurement uncertainty. Nevertheless,
the methodology is demonstrated to provide useful quantitative estimates
of the design uncertainty resulting from the combined measurement/model
phase-equilibrium uncertainty.