Relaxing the constant molar overflow assumption in distillation optimization

The constant molar overflow (CMO) framework, while useful for shortcut distillation models, assumes that all components have the same latent heats of vaporization. A simple transformation, from flows to latent-heat flows, allows models retain mathematical simplicity CMO framework accounting different heats, resulting in heat transport (CHT) adiabatic columns. Although several past works already proposed this transformation literature, it has not been well utilized recent times. In article, we show utility upgrading various applications such as identifying energy-efficient multicomponent configurations based on duty rather than surrogate vapor flow. method transforms V min $$ {V}^{\mathrm{min}} diagram a Q {Q}^{\mathrm{min}} diagram. Furthermore, derive new and insightful analytical results distillation, cumulative stage fractions having monotonic profiles within column under CHT framework.