a) A liquid process stream (BioPhLS) in a new biopharmaceutical industrial plant has the following estimated composition: 35.1mol% of an alkanol-based biomolecule BioM and the remaining being a liquid (DcL) having a higher boiling point than liquid BioM in the mixture. This stream is to be processed by distillation for the recovery of the useful liquid BioM, and is therefore fed to a distillation column operating on continuous mode under atmospheric conditions. The final products from the distillation column have to be as follows: top stream with 5.3mol%DcL and a bottoms stream having 94.3mol% DcL. The optimum reflux ratio (Ropt) to be practiced (with appropriate flow control system installed at the top of column) has been set at 2.15. Using the McCabe-Thiele method, determine the actual number of plates required for achieving the above distillation performance for the separation of the BioM/DcL feed, and the stage where the BioPhLS should be optimally fed into the column. Note that the overall column plate efficiency is 57.4%. The BioPhLS fed to the distillation column can be approximated to its saturated liquid (with less than 4.8% deviation from this saturated liquid state) over the whole duration of operation of the process. Equilibrium data of BioM/DcL mixtures at 1atm [25 marks] b) Discuss how an operating value of Ropt can be selected based on Rmin and maximum reflux conditions for a distillation process such as the one described in Question 1(a)