Analysis of Operation Results of the Internally Heat Integrated Distillation Column (HIDiC) Pilot Pant In Japan

Our honoree Professor Dr. Shuzo Ohe was the chairman of the evaluation committee of the Japanese NEDO HIDiC project conducted in 2002-2006. Not only he gave us a lot of suggestion on our project, but also he has introduced our HIDiC technology in AIChE meetings. He has presented the application of the HIDiC technology for the separation of azeotropic mixtures. We would like to express our sincere appreciation to his generous works on distillation technologies by reporting the analysis of operation results of the HIDiC pilot plant. The HIDiC pilot plant was designed by Kimura Chemical Plants Co., Ltd., constructed in Chiba factory of Maruzen Petrochemical Co., Ltd in 2005. Among the operation results obtained in the NEDO HIDiC project, those with the zero external reflux condition have been analyzed in this study. The overall heat transfer coefficients, which is one of the most important properties to design the HIDiC, were calculated by the operation results under an assumption of the constant average enthalpy of the internal reflux. The results were correlated to the flow rate of the internal reflux. Based on the correlation, the steady-state simulations were carried out. The simulation results showed the better reproduction of operation results than those from the previous model with the constant overall heat transfer coefficient.