In this work it was studied the heterogeneous azeotropic distillation process in batch columns. It is a good alternative to the separation of non-ideal mixtures when there is small amount to be processed and the continuous process becomes expansive due to the operating costs. It was analysed the system (entrainer plus initial mixture) characteristics that are favourable to obtain the desired separation, different operating policies were discussed, the control implementation was proposed and the process was optimized considering the operational time and energy consumption. The phenol/ water separation was used as a case study. Simulations were performed using Hysys.Plant process simulator (AEA Technology).Conventional thermal unit operations can be restricted by vaporliquid, liquid-liquid or solid-liquid equilibrium constraints. Distillation, for example, is often limited by azeotropes or hindered by small volality differences (pinches) in vapor-liquid phase equilibria. Melt crystallization is not usually viable over a wide concentration range, and is normally restricted by eutectics or by unreasonable energy consumption to achieve high purity products. In these cases it is very advantageous to form new hybrid separation processes combining two ore more complementary unit operations in such a way that each unit operation is used only in regions of phase equilibria where it operates most effectively and economically. This review presents a survey of hybrid separation processes already being used in the chemical industries and examples of new applications taken from recent considerations.
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