Separation of a Ternary Homoazeotropic Mixture by Pressure Swing Batch Distillation

The separation of a ternary mixture (n-pentane-acetone-cyclo-hexane) with two binary minimum azeotropes is studied by feasibility studies and rigorous simulation calculations. By the feasibility studies based on the analysis of the vessel paths in the residue curve maps at the two different pressures (P, P) the separation steps are determined for the two configurations studied (batch stripper (BS), double column batch stripper (DCBS)). The rigorous calculations are performed by the CCDColumn professional dynamic flow-sheet simulator. For the DCBS two operational policies are compared.