The schematic below shows a refrigerated cooling loop in whi…
The schematic below shows a refrigerated cooling loop in which pure 1,1 difluoroethane (R-152a) is used as the refrigerant to cool a process stream containing a mixture of hexane and toluene. Simulate this system using Aspen Plus with the Peng Robinson Equation of State. The system should be modeled initially where you do not actually connect the loop at the discharge of the compressor but instead specify the input into the condenser (stream 1) and then have the output from the compressor be calculated as stream 1a as shown in the modified PFD below. The following may be assumed: Refrigerant Loop The flow of R-152a refrigerant (stream 1) is 150 kmol/hr and enters the condenser at 12 bar and from the compressor. The temperature of the stream can be assumed to be 85 C initially. Condenser Cooling water (CW) enters the condenser heat exchanger at 30 C, 2.5 bar and a flow rate of 4000 kmol/hr and cools the R-152a stream. The condenser is to condense and sub-cool the hot R-152a refrigerant 5 oC below its boiling point (stream 2) . This should be modeled as a heat exchanger using a HeatX block. The water side has a pressure drop of 0.5 bar and the refrigerant side has a pressure drop of 1 bar. Expansion Valve The valve should drop the R-152a refrigerant to a pressure of 3 bar (stream 3) and can be found in the Pressure Changers group of Aspen Plus. Evaporator The hexane toluene mixture (Process stream) is cooled in the evaporator and enters at 45 C at a pressure of 2 bar is 60 mole% hexane and 40 mole% toluene. The flow rate of the process stream is 340 kmol/hr. The evaporator cools the hot hexane / toluene mixture by evaporation of the cold R-152a liquid to a saturated vapor state (stream 4). It should also be modeled as a heat exchanger using a HeatX block The pressure drop across the evaporator is 1 bar for the R-152a side and 0.5 bar for the hexane / toluene side. Compressor The compressor is a single stage unit that can be specified using the ASME isentropic model in Aspen with a 75% isentropic efficiency. It will compress the R-152A gas to 12 bar (stream 1a). A) Find the duty of the condenser (cal/sec) ______________ B) Find the brake horsepower (kW) of the compressor______________ C) Find the area (m2) of the evaporator ______________ D) Find the vapor fraction of the refrigerant at the discharge of the valve ______________ E) Find the gas temperature in stream 1A (oC) ______________