Heat-integrated intensified distillation processes

Abstract

Heat integration between vapor and liquid streams has been widely used in chemical and petrochemical plants for conventional distillation processes as an alternative to reduce the energy consumption. However, with the advances that have been proposed in intensified distillation processes in the last couple of decades, heat-integrated alternatives that are more attractive than the typical condenser-reboiler heat integration have also been proposed. Therefore, intensified distillation processes also need a new approach methodology to implement optimal locations and heat load in heat-integrated distillation. This chapter aims to cover the fundamentals, simulation and optimization approaches for heat-integrated intensified distillation processes for nonreactive and reactive systems. Conventional distillation can result in an intensified process if heat integration is allowed at locations other than the condenser and reboiler. Although thermally coupled distillation and Heat-Integrated Distillation (HIDiC) are already intensified processes, they can attain higher energy reduction by rearranging their heat load distribution. For reactive systems, at the location subject to heat integration, vapor-liquid equilibrium and reaction kinetic conditions are modified simultaneously, which results in a very challenging problem. Reactive system via multi-effect and thermally coupled configuration is also covered in this chapter for the methyl acetate hydrolysis and esterification of isopropyl alcohol. The applications of heatintegrated intensified distillation show feasible solutions with improved energy efficiency and total annual cost reduction for new designs.