A new method to predict the location of pinch point for distillation columns with two feeds

One of the most widely used devices in chemical, petrochemical and food industries is distillation column. In order to design distillation column with more than one feed, finding the pinch point is necessary. The designer has to calculate minimum reflux ratio for all feeds of column to find the location of pinch point. This method is time consuming and tedious. In this research, the simple method is proposed to find pinch point location without calculating minimum reflux ratio for all feeds. The results of this method are compared to Mc Cabe-Thiele method. The results show that this method can find the location of pinch point with high accuracy.

Keywords:

Distillation , Minimum reflux ratio , Pinch point , Column.