A General Overview On Distillation Columns and Column Circuits
A General Overview On Distillation Columns and Column Circuits
A General Overview On Distillation Columns and Column Circuits
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Abstract —In this study, a general overview on the latest developments on distillation column technique, distillation cascade and geometrical
distillation columns and the networks consisted from distillation columns methods such as, examining separation space are the ones that are
were investigated. During this study, various distillation techniques were focused on this paper[4–10]. When these methods are considered, it is
reviewed from various sources in the literature and these methods were
clearly seen that there are some effective approaches to the issue of
examined first and then the most effective one was determined regarding
energy efficiency and lowest cost. Consequently, Turkish industry’s place energy saving in distillation columns by considering different aspects
in distillation column applications were considered and most feasible of the system. Therefore, these various points of views can be gathered
method is offered to Turkish industry among studied ones such as, divided for a determination of a most energy efficient system existing. At that
wall distillation column (DWC) technique, reverse calculation of Thomas point, considering Turkey’s high energy demand, hydrocarbon
algorithm technique, pinch analysis method, internal heat integration products become vital[3].
method and distillation cascade techniques.
In Turkish distillation column design industry, there are some major
Keywords— Distillation columns, distillation column circuits, review . Turkish companies in this field and they have their own methods
mainly based on vapor liquid equilibrium (VLE) chart readings and
I. INTRODUCTION restricted themselves with this design method.
Energy is a fundamental parameter for all countries to sustain the
needs of industry, agriculture, transportation and households. In this study, various enhanced distillation column operating
Increasing industrial facilities and rapid technological developments techniques have been reviewed and a recommendation for Turkish
cause large energy requirements as opposed to decreasing energy industry has been made to catch up the latest industrial advancements
sources. In addition, increased energy dependence leads to in this area to be a demanding country among the others.
environmental pollution, global warming, increased energy costs, and
inability to use energy. For this reason, many developing countries II. RESEARCH METHOD
have difficulties balancing the energy gap between energy demand and Driving force of this study is the importance of energy in today’s
energy supply [1]. world. Considering importance of energy, fossil fuels was focused on
and when it comes to processing of HCs, distillation columns was
Fossil fuels, one the most important energy sources in the world, cover selected. After that point, it is clearly seen that there are various studies
80% of world’s energy need[2]. To keep the economy of transportation on improving the energy efficiency and decreasing environmental
and industry alive, fossil fuel production is inevitable [3]. In the early effects of distillation columns. In this study, other parameters rather
20th century, distillation columns became widely used in than improving energy efficiency and decreasing environmental
multicomponent liquid-liquid mixture separation processes. effects were neglected in distillation column design. During these
Nowadays, approximately 90-95% of the separation operations are improvement processes, Aspen Plus and Aspen Dynamics, which are
done by distillation columns. It became popular because, quality loss very useful and advanced software with the capacity of plugging in
is in minimum levels in distillation columns when they produce mass large number of parameters, including complex stages of simulations,
[4]. Its working principle is based on separating components of the large number of trials to be precise and capable of running “what if”
mixture by their volatilities via adding heat to the system or removing comments for precision and optimization, were generally used in
heat from the system. When it happens, more volatile components different methods [11].
vaporize, while less volatile components remaining liquid [5]. This
process happens in a column with determined number of trays, where In addition to this software, there are also manual calculation methods
gas and liquid phases in interaction, feed location and reflux ratio are that are used for designing more energy efficient and environmentally
also vital in distillation column design [4,6]. When the components’ friendly distillation columns. Some of them are, driving force design
volatilities are close or even azeotropic, commonly used distillation method, reverse calculation of Thomas algorithm, potential
techniques such as binary-mixture distillation, multi-component environmental impacts calculations and Euler’s Method (with
distillation, extractive & azeotropic distillation, batch distillation, MATLAB) [4,6].
become insufficient [7].
During this study, most of the researches that are examined showed
Recently, due to high energy consumption of distillation columns, that, efficiency of distillation columns can be improved by either
which led to release of CO2 and environmental issues such as global increasing precision of the system with the condition that, finding
warming, improvements in separation techniques have been optimum values regarding cost or adding a new component to the
considered [4]. Therefore, various methods have been arisen. Heat system. In the light of these two factors, determination of optimal
integration by pinch analysis, heat integration in packed columns number of plates, optimal location for feed, optimal reflux ratio,
considering effects of relative volatility, column height and product optimal driving force in minimum energy need and number of flash
characteristics on the energy reducibility, distillation without the tanks in purification are vital parameters in the improvement process.
utilities (DWHU) as a new approach to distillation with vapor
recompression (VRC), driving force design method, combining
preconcentration and extractive distillation column, divided wall
III. EXPERIMENTAL OPERATIONS OF DISTILLATION
COLUMNS
In this part of the study, all methods that are examined was explained
in detail with results and the most advantageous one became one step
ahead. First, shortcut method was shown to put a reference point to our
research and continued with the comprehensive optimization
applications. To begin with, as a shortcut method Fenske Underwood
Gilliland (FUG) method is the most common one. Fenske Underwood
Gilliland method considers mass overflow and relative volatility
parameters as constant for entire column. This method based on
specifying two boundaries with maximum reflux (no feed is entering
or exiting from the column) and minimum reflux (an infinite number
of trays) and by using Fenske equation, claims that the optimal value
is in between these two boundaries [12].
IV. CONCLUSION
In this work, an overview of recent developments in distillation
columns and nets composed of distillation columns has been
investigated. In this study, various distillation techniques were
examined from various sources and these methods were reviewed first,
and then the most useful ones were determined considering the energy
Figure 4. Operating schematic of DWHU system. efficiency, lowest cost and the environmental effects. In Turkish
industry, distillation columns are used in many areas such as,
Using the proposed DWHU system, seen in the figure 4, compared to refineries, chemical substance producing facilities, etc. and mostly
the conventional distillation column, it has been found that a 33.3% conventional techniques are preferred. It is seen that; Turkish industry
reduction in the required equivalent operation of the system can be needs some enhanced design recommendations in this area.
achieved. In addition to that, annual operating and total costs are
possibly decreased by 35.9 and 17.6%, respectively. In conclusion, the location of the distillation column in Turkish
industry practices led us to this study and after considering entire
In 2008, an enhanced simulation was applied on multicomponent aspects of the all examined design methods, due to its certainty and
batch packed distillation columns, to determine the optimum cycle promising results Kazemi’s study, distillation without hot utilities
number and internal reflux ratio [15]. In MATLAB simulation two (DWHU), is the best choice with reduction in annual operating and
types of mixtures (cyclohexane-n-heptane-toluene and ethanol–water) total costs by 35.9 and 17.6%, respectively. In addition to that, because
were studied to increase the precision of the results. Both experiments there is no additional heat source needed in this type of distillation
and simulations were done, and it is concluded that, regarding purity columns, the environmental effects of this facility is also reduced [8].
and distillate amounts, one recycling is the optimum case with 28%
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