Comparison and improvement of driving force-based distillation columns system designs

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to compare two driving force-based approaches for designing distillation column systems. A new methodology intended as a comparison tool is presented, where a distillation column system designed at maximum driving force is compared with a distillation column system designed at driving force that corresponds to the feed composition of the light component. In addition, a simplified Kirkbride equation is proposed to improve the existing feed location determination. The methodology is made up of four hierarchical stages; (1) identification of process mixture, (2) determination of driving force sequence, (3) design using driving force method and (4) energy analysis. The steps to sequence and design the systems as well as to analyze their performance in terms of energy usage were applied on an aromatic mixture separation case study. The findings show that by using this study's approach, the design variables obtained resulted in a system that achieves better purity (near-optimal), is more accurate and more energy efficient that an existing system, with 9.34% less energy used.