SIMULATION AND ANALYSIS OF AN INDUSTRIAL COLUMN SYSTEM OF BIOETHANOL DISTILLATION HEATED BY VAPOR DIRECT INJECTION

Abstract

Most commercial process simulators have its origin at the petrochemical industry and their use in other sectors depends on testing. In this context a model of an industrial column system of bioethanol distillation heated by direct injection of vapor was developed and implemented using the simulator Aspen HYSYS, which was compared with experimental data obtained in the industrial plant. The system basically consists of four columns heated by direct vapor injection and the model of the system was developed using this approach together with the simulation blocks for columns heated by reboilers available on Aspen HYSYS. For such a task it was admitted a null termal load for the reboiler and a direct vapor stream was added in the side of the column. Overall deviations between simulated values and those measured in the distillery were 2.3 % for temperatures, 12.95 % for concentrations, and 1.07 % for bioethanol production in the industrial distillation system (IDS). The low values of the deviations obtained when comparing the data of the real process with simulated data indicate that IDS is well sized and the model implemented as well as the process simulator adopted can be used in the sugar-ethanol industry with distillation columns heated by direct injection of vapor.