Revisiting the binary azeotropic separation containing tetrahydrofuran and ethanol: Design and control of extractive distillation using dimethyl sulfoxide as alternative solvent

This study reexamined the possibility of improving separation binary azeotropic mixture containing tetrahydrofuran (THF) and ethanol from previous work ( J Chem Technol Biotechnol 2015; 90: 1463–1472) that rely on extractive distillation (ED) using ethylene glycol (EG) as solvent. Here, dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) is proposed an alternative solvent for ED, its feasibility preliminary screened compared against usage EG. The conceptual ED DMSO designed by manipulating all design variables until minimum product specifications (i.e. purity) are achieved. Then, further optimised particle swarm algorithm to obtain ideal column configuration performance pressure swing (PSD) best process) based economic CO 2 emission. Overall, provides 36 % 37 lower emission with respect In comparison PSD work, it 24 25 reduction in TAC Lastly, a control structure developed can effectively handle ± 10 throughput 5 feed composition disturbances without need controller case work.