Energy Consumption Optimization of Dividing Wall Column Distillation (DWC) for Separation of Butanol, Pentanol, and Hexanol

DWC is one of the most attractive methods for separating mixtures because it leads to significant savings in energy consumption and investment cost. In this paper, simulation of DWC is carried out. The effects of operating and structural parameters on the energy efficiency of DWC were investigated for the separation of a ternary mixture of butanol, pentanol, and hexanol. DWC has one boiler and one condenser compared to two distillation columns with two reboilers and two condensers. Various parameters were optimized using sensitivity analysis to minimize the heat duties of reboilers and condensers. The studied parameters can be divided into two categories: structural parameters including the number of stages, feed stage and side stage, and process parameters including reflux ratio, vapor split ratio, and liquid split ratio. According to the results, DWC resulted in a saving of ۱۷.۶۶% for the boiler's heat duty and ۲۰.۵۴% for the condenser's heat duty.

Keywords:

Dividing Wall Column , DWC , Distillation , Energy Efficiency