Nargess Eyvazi Abhari - Computer Aided Process Engineering (CAPE) Laboratory School of Chemical Engineering Iran University of Science and Technology (IUST) Tehran ۱۴۶۸۶۱۳۱۱۳, Iran
Amirhossein Khalili-Garakani - Chemistry & Process Engineering Department Niroo Research Institute Tehran ۱۴۶۶۵۱۹۹۸, Iran

In separation of three-component mixtures by distillation, prefractionator is as a known configuration. This configuration like all other distillation arrangements consumes high amount of energy, so it’s essential to decrease the energy consumption of this process to reduce costs and environmental concerns. In this article, we studied separation of a three-component mixture of iso-pentane, normal-pentane, and normal-hexane by using prefractionator distillation configuration. Then we investigate thermal arrangement of internally heat-integrated distillation column (HIDiC) to decrease need of utility in process energy supplement. HIDiC arrangement is considered as a heat integration alternative in reduction of required heat-duty of the separation system. It was found that due to internal energy integration for both of the columns in this configuration, HIDiC arrangement achieves a better performance with energy saving of about ۳۵% in compared with conventional distillation columns

energy/heat-integration; HIDiC; internally heat-integrated distillation column; prefractionator; energy saving