Optimization of pressure-swing distillation for anhydrous ethanol purification by the simulated annealing algorithm

Abstract

The present study addresses the novel application of the simulated annealing algorithm (SAA) to optimize the pressure-swing distillation (PSD) process for anhydrous ethanol purifcation. Three different softwares (Aspen Plus®, Excel® and Matlab®) were integrated to simultaneously optimize seven design and operational variables. The confguration with the best TAC represented a 40.2% saving per year in comparison to the non-optimized PSD. Such reduction was achieved by using the higher acceptance probability and the slower temperature decrement. This saving is mainly related to operational cost reductions, a fact that evidences the viability of using the herein described optimization methodology to improve the PSD design.