The Caprolactam should be extracted from a stream Caprolactam-Benzene (100 kmol/h) by using water (=Extract, E) at T = 20 °C. In order to have an economic process, a counter-current process is designed. The benzene stream (=Raffinate, R) should be in another process step re-used, therefore its content in Caprolactam should not exceed xRC = 0.02. a) Calculate the minimum amount of water for the following case: xFC = 0.25. b) Use the overall mass balance and list all the inlet and outlet streams and their composition.
c) Calculate graphically the number of theoretical stages for the Mixer-Settler, when working with a water stream which is 1.5 times higher than the minimum amount of water.