POTENTIAL-ENERGY SAVINGS IN IDEAL HEAT-INTEGRATED DISTILLATION COLUMN

An ideal Heat-Integrated Distillation Column (HIDiC), having no reboil er and no condenser, is constructed in such a manner that its rectifyi ng and stripping sections are separated, while connected through a com pressor and a throttling valve. Its manipulation is completed by excha nging heat between the two sections. The ideal HIDiC is expected to be more efficient than conventional columns, at the expense of some ener gy to raise the pressure of the rectifying section. In this paper, it is shown by thermodynamical consideration that the ideal HIDiC has a h igh potential of texergy loss reduction in the operation compared with conventional columns. The effects of feed and distillate composition, and relative volatility on energy saving characteristics are simulate d in this paper, and the possibility of energy saving is found for fee d compositions. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.