Vapor-Liquid Equilibrium (VLE)
for Binary System in Aspen Plus
Pramudya Ananta pramudyaant@[Link]
1
About: Vapor-Liquid Equilibrium
Vapor-Liquid Equilibrium describes the state where the liquid
phase and vapor phase of a compound are in equilibrium,
meaning the rate of vaporization equals with the rate of
condensation.
There is no macroscopic change in the composition, pressure,
and temperature of the binary system. However, at the
microscopic level, the condition is not static. The molecules of
the compound will continuously move from one phase to
another, in this case from the liquid phase to the vapor phase
and vice versa.
At low pressure At low pressure
Pramudya Ananta pramudyaant@[Link]
2
About: Vapor-Liquid Equilibrium
VLE plays a central role in the design and simulation of
separation processes such as distillation, absorption, and
extraction. Accurate VLE data is essential for determining the
conditions under which liquid and vapor phases coexist, and for
choosing the right thermodynamic models.
Common thermodynamic models that used for VLE calculation:
1 Wilson
Non-Random Two Liquid
2 (NRTL)
Universal Quasi-Chemical
3 (UNIQUAC)
Wilson, NRTL, and UNIQUAC are widely used due to their ability
to model non-ideal liquid mixtures accurately. Each offers
reliable correlation and/or calculation across various chemical
systems, making them essential for separation process design.
Aspen Plus is a widely used process simulator in chemical or
manufacturing industries that enables the prediction and
regression of VLE data using various models. Through this
simulation, engineers can better design separation units and
analyze the behavior of real mixtures.
Pramudya Ananta pramudyaant@[Link]
3
Simulation
VLE for Methanol(1) + Water(2) Isothermal Binary System
First things first, input the components in Aspen Plus such as
follows:
Then, go to the Methods > Specifications, choose and apply the
Wilson and NRTL method.
After that, open the Parameters > Binary
Interaction, we can see that the Wilson
and NRTL method were applied and
waiting for the next step.
Pramudya Ananta pramudyaant@[Link]
4
Click on each binary interaction parameters and the Aspen
Plus will generate the parameters needed by that method
based on its database. It will be shown as:
If it goes blue like that, it shows that Aspen Plus had the data
for the exact compounds or system(s), and we are good to go!
For this simulation session, we want to try to compare the
experimental data based on Smith et al., (2018) and the
correlation data that we will get from the Aspen Plus. Thus, for
the data:
J. M. Smith, H. C. Van Ness, and M. M. Abbott, Introduction to Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics, 8th ed. New York:
McGraw-Hill, 2018.
Pramudya Ananta pramudyaant@[Link]
5
To input the data, open the Data section and click “New”. Input
the data such as follows:
Click on the “>>” to include both components in the data that
we will input in the Data setup.
Choose the data type for the system that we have the data for,
in this case Pxy, and don’t forget to input the constant
temperature or pressure at the bottom section.
Then, input the data such as given:
Pramudya Ananta pramudyaant@[Link]
6
After that, click on the P-xy diagram on the right corner of the
Data section. The P-xy diagram will be shown based on the
data input.
Then, click on the Binary to setup the analysis for T-xy or P-xy.
Pramudya Ananta pramudyaant@[Link]
7
The Binary Analysis section will be shown as follows. Make
sure to change the analysis type to Pxy and temperature values
that we have from the literature, which is 333.15 K.
For the BINRY-1, we choose the Calculation Options > Property
method > WILSON. Then, click Run Analysis. The result will be
plotted such as follows.
Pramudya Ananta pramudyaant@[Link]
8
Click again on the Binary Analysis section so that we have
BINRY-1 and BINRY-2. On the BINRY-2, we choose the
Calculation Options > Property method > NRTL.
On the plot design, choose the temperature and pressure axis
to K and kPa, the same units that we have on the data. After
that, we can merge the plot generated from before, both the
BINRY-1 and VANNESS (data P-xy).
Pramudya Ananta pramudyaant@[Link]
9
Then, after the plot were merged, right-click on the plot and
choose “Y-Axis Map”. Change the axis to “Single Y Axis” and
click Ok.
The final result will be shown as follows, with VANNESS data,
Wilson calculation, and NRTL calculation having quite similar
values, as indicated by the ‘small gap’ between each plot.
Pramudya Ananta pramudyaant@[Link]
10
Conclusion
The plot generated using Wilson and NRTL models closely
follow the experimental data from VANNESS, both for the
liquid phase (x) and vapor phase (y).
In other words, the small gap between experimental points and
the simulation curves shows low deviation, suggesting
accurate parameter fitting or appropriate model selection.
However, this won’t be the case for every system. The accuracy
of thermodynamic models like Wilson or NRTL largely depends
on the nature of the components involved. Therefore, careful
model selection and validation against experimental data
remain essential steps in any VLE analysis.
Pramudya Ananta pramudyaant@[Link]
Thank you for reading!
If you have any feedback, suggestions, or
notice any mistakes in my explanation,
feel free to connect or reach out.
Let’s strive and grow together!
Pramudya Ananta pramudyaant@[Link]
