CALCULATING MINIMUM REFLUX OF NONIDEAL MULTICOMPONENT DISTILLATION USING EIGENVALUE THEORY

A volume, denoted unstable eigenvolume, located very close to the pinc h points occuring one in each minimum refluxed rectification column se ction, and spanned by the eigenvectors corresponding to eigenvalues gr eater than one of the functional matrix of rigorous plate-to-plate cal culation contains the initial points of all potentially feasible rigor ous separation paths leaving the pinch into the feed component space. Searching the unstable eigenvolumes for the initial points of two inte rsecting separation paths constitutes a new rigorous minimum reflux me thod. The intersection of merely the unstable eigenspaces is a new alg ebraic approximate criterion for minimum reflux.