mixture of benzene and toluene must be separated using a distillation column with the benzene purity at the top of the column as 92 % and bottom as 5%. The 250 kmol/h saturated liquid feed contains 55 mole% of benzene. The reflux is a saturated liquid and a reflux ratio of 1.9 is maintained. Estimate the distillate, bottom rate, minimum and actual number of stages required to obtain the desired purity. The vapor liquid equilibrium data at operating pressure of 101.3 kPa are given below. x0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 y 0 0.21 | 0.38 | 0.511 | 0.627 0.719 | 0.79 | 0.853 0.91 | 0.961 | 1.0

a process consists of two distillation columns. the composition of the feed to the first column is 30 mol% benzene, 30 mol% toluene, and 40 mol% xylene. the top stream of the first column does not contain xylene. the benzene content of the dome stream from the first column is 55 mol %. the bottoms stream from the second column has a flow of 100 mol/h and contains 15 mol% toluene and no benzene; while the top stream of the second column contains 50 mol % benzene. the upper stream flow of the first tower is twice the upper stream flow of the second tower. determine the molar flux of the fresh feed stream and the overhead stream leaving the first column.