ABSTRACT
The separation of a multi-component mixture into products with different compositions in a multistage process is governed by phase equilibrium relations and energy and material balances. It is not uncommon in simulation studies to require certain column product rates, compositions, or component recoveries to satisfy given specifications with no concern for conditions within the column. Such would be the case when downstream processing of the products is of primary interest. In these instances, one would be concerned only with overall component balances around the column but not necessarily with heat balances or equilibrium relations. Separation would thus be arbitrarily defined, and the problem would be to calculate product rates and compositions. The actual performance of the separation process is analyzed independently in all the following chapters.
