Review of Retrofitting Distillation Columns Using Thermally Coupled Distillation Sequences and Dividing Wall Columns to Improve Energy Efficiency

Abstract

Distillation is a common energy-intensive process. Accordingly, it is the rst process to be addressed to improve the energy e ciency over both the short-and long-term. Recent studies and industrial applications have proven that advanced process integration and process intensi cation techniques such as the use of a thermally coupled distillation sequence (TCDS) and a dividing wall column (DWC) require the lowest amount of energy for the separation of mixtures into pure product streams. This paper reviews some energy-e cient distillation technologies that can be used in a retro t design. The research on and implementation of retro ts using a TCDS and DWC are reviewed. This report proposes coupled schemes as alternatives to using a Petlyuk column that do not have the classical problem of controlling the vapor transfer from one column to another and have not previously been proposed for retro ts. These schemes are expected to make signi cant contributions to improving the energy e ciency and mitigating CO 2 emission in the retro tting of distillation systems. The authors evaluated a solution for retro tting azeotropic and extractive distillation systems. Various issues such as the constraints, techno-economic analysis, controllability, and operability are discussed brie y to provide more insight into the application of TCDS and DWC technologies in the retro t.

Trade‐off between energy consumption and ethylene recovery rate for quasi‐plant wide operation optimization of the ethylene column with bottom circulatory system in ethylene complex

“…Distillation columns are widely used in the petrochemical industry. [1][2][3][4] Research on distillation columns contains two aspects: studying the characteristics and designing the operation strategy. The characteristics of a distillation column must be discussed to acquire the relationship among variables and elucidate the nature of important variables through modeling and analysis.…”

“…3, the ethylene component of the feed cannot be recovered instantly and circulation and separation alternated. The ethylene component is conserved, as shown in Eqn (4).…”

Energy and Exergetic Evaluation of the Multicomponent Separation of Petrochemical Naphtha in Falling Film Distillation Columns

“…Also, more than one such practice is used at the same time (Olujić et al, 2009;Resetarits et al, 2015). For example, in the case of a single distillation column, Lee and Long (2014) mention that the energy integration is adopted in innumerable ways as in the use of heat pumps, feed splitting, side reboiler or a side condenser, changes in operating pressure, and changing the thermal conditions of the feed stream. Industries that use distillation columns have options of either upgrading units already in operation or using a new advanced column.…”

Improving the Efficiency of the Stabilization Columns in Oil and Gas Processing

“…Due to high energy consumption in the rectification process the problems of energy efficiency of plants have attracted particular attention [6], [7]. There is an eventual necessity for improving the process technology to increase the rectification efficiency.…”

“…The choice of pressure in the rectification column is usually associated with a required temperature regime [1], [8], [9]. The studies available on the effect of pressure on the efficiency of rectification columns have often been controversial [7], [10], [11]. Previously, it was theoretically shown that the sharpness of fractionation of rectification columns in the process of operation can be substantially improved by increasing their operating pressure [12], [13].…”