Internally heat-integrated distillation columns (HIDiC) are a new design option to provide a sustainable separation system. Although significant energy savings can be achieved using this setup, a considerable increase in investment cost penalizes the application. One major cost driver is the compressor cost, which depends on the relative volatility of the mixture to be separated. While mixtures...

Diphenyl carbonate (DPC) is a precursor in the production of polycarbonate, an important engineering thermoplastic with excellent mechanical and optical properties as well as electrical and heat resistance properties. Traditionally, DPC is synthesized by the transesterification reaction of dimethyl carbonate (DMC) and phenol. In the study, phenyl acetate is used instead of phenol to react with ...

Crude oil distillation (atmospheric distillation column with furnace) consumes about 50% of the energy required in oil refinery plant. To achieve further reduction of the energy required in oil refinery plants, it is required to investigate the crude oil distillation and to retrofit it for energy saving process. Recently, authors developed an innovative process design technology, self-heat recu...

Reactive distillation is an excellent example of recent advances in process intensification. It combines reaction and separation operations in one piece of equipment. This paper studies the steady-state economic optimum design of a chemical process with a generic exothermic reversible reaction A+B↔C+D for two different process flowsheets: a conventional multi-unit reactor/separator/recycle stru...

Process intensification refers to technologies and strategies that enable simpler and more efficient processes compared to conventional processes. Some features of such intensified processes are less recycle streams, reduced need for waste handling and lower investment and operating costs compared to conventional processes. One way of doing this is by making two or more process steps simultaneo...

E nergy costs are the largest percentage of a hydrocarbon plant’s operating expenditures. This is especially true of the distillation process, which requires substantial energy consumption. Concerns over recent high costs and economic pressures continually emphasise the need for efficient distillation design and operation without a loss of performance. This article illustrates how energy-effici...

A reactive distillation column in general can exhibit multiple steady states which reduce column operability and controllability during perturbations of manipulated variables and particularly during start-up and shut down. The objective of this paper was to compare the equilibrium (EQ) and nonequilibrium (NEQ) models of a reactive distillation column, focusing on the phenomenon of multiple stea...

Based on two integration steps, an optimization framework is proposed in this work for the synthesis and design of complex distillation sequence. The first step is to employ heat integration in sequence and reduce the heat consumption and total annual cost of the process. The second one is to increase the exergetic efficiency of sequence by generating power in implemented expanders in sequence....