Are thermally coupled distillation columns always thermodynamically more efficient for ternary distillations?

Journal Article · Sat Aug 01 04:00:00 EDT 1998 · Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/ie980062m· OSTI ID:659064

Agrawal, R; Fidkowski, Z T ^[1]

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1. Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., Allentown, PA (United States)

The thermodynamic efficiency of five ternary distillation configurations to distill ideal saturated liquids into pour product streams are calculated and compared. A striking result of this study is that for the fully coupled column (Petlyuk) configuration, which is known to have the lowest heat demand for ternary distillation, the range of values of feed composition and relative volatilities for which it is the most thermodynamically efficient configuration is quite limited. Among the three thermally coupled column configurations tend to provide the most efficient configuration more often than the fully coupled configuration. Generally, the modified direct and indirect split configurations together provide the most thermodynamically efficient configuration for more feed compositions and relative volatilities than do the three thermally coupled column configurations. The high thermodynamic efficiency of these two configurations is primarily due to their ability to either accept or reject heat at the intermediate temperatures of binary mixtures.

• OSTI ID: 659064
• Journal Information: Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research, Journal Name: Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research Journal Issue: 8 Vol. 37; ISSN IECRED; ISSN 0888-5885
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
DESIGN
DISTILLATION EQUIPMENT
ENERGY EFFICIENCY
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
THERMODYNAMICS