Thermodynamics and phase equilibria. Ternary diagrams and tie-lines.
Distillation operations: description of the distillation process; methods of distillation including batch, continuous, and flash distillation; methods for design of distillation systems including the McCabe-Thiele and Ponchon-Savarit methods; Efficiency and limiting conditions of binary distillation; multicomponent distillation and the Fenske-Underwood-Gilliland method; azetropic and extractive distillation.
Leaching and extraction: general and working principles of leaching and extraction; leaching equipment including Bollman and Hildebrandt extractors; extraction equipment including mixer-settlers, spray and packed extraction towers, and agitated tower extractors; determination of solvent rates and number of theoretical stages for continuous countercurrent and multistage extraction operations.
Absorption: description of absorption and the associated mass and energy balances; solvent selection, equilibrium stages, limiting cases.
Gas-liquid equipment: columns, packing, mass transfer and transfer to a stagnant layer (concentrated and dilute), two-film theory, equimolar counterdiffusion, number of transfer units and height of a transfer unit.
Green Chemistry and Separations: Principles of Green Chemistry; energy and material flow analysis; Material and Energy Conservation; Waste Minimisation; Green solvents.
