A distillation column is being used to separate a liquid mixture of ethanol (more volatile) and water (less volatile).
A vapor mixture containing 89.0 mole% ethanol and the balance water enters the overhead condenser at a rate of 100 lb-mole/h. The liquid condensate has a density of 49.0 lbm/ft3, and the reflux ratio is 3 lbm reflux/lbm overhead product. When the system is operating at steady state, the tank collecting the condensate is half full of liquid and the mean residence time in the tank (volume of liquid/volumetric flow rate of liquid) is 10.0 minutes.
Determine the overhead product volumetric flow rate (ft3/min) and the condenser tank volume (gal).
