Javad Ivakpour - Research Institute of Petroleum Industry, Tehran, Iran,
Norolah Kasiri - Computer Aided Process Engineering Lab, School of Chemical Engineering, Iran University of Science & Technology

The simulation of distillation columns is an essential step in design, optimization, and rating. In this paper, a new procedure has been proposed for the initial estimation of column profiles based on modified Kremser’s group method for simple and/or complex columns. The effect of this initialization algorithm on simulation procedure has been studied through two examples. The results show significant improvement in convergence and considerable saving in execution time up to ۳۰%. The proposed method can be used in problems which require numerous simulation runs to find the optimum conditions such as distillation column sequencing and the optimum design of distillation columns. The proposed method could also be used as an approximating simulation method for simple and complex distillation columns considering constant relative volatility and constant molar overflow assumptions.

Distillation, Simulation, Initialization, Column Profiles, Kremser’s Method