Design, Optimization and Control of Energy-Saving Dividing-Wall Column for Separating Azeotropes

Dividing-wall column is an important way to process intensification. For the past decades, more and more publications were focused on the design and control of dividing-wall column (including petlyuk) since it usually offers considerable energy saving and investment reduction. However, the past research emphasized ideal/zoetropic separation. This work aims to extend the dividing-wall column to azeotrope separation for energy and investment benefits, with special focus on design, optimization and control. Firstly, this work reviewed the past research on the design and control of dividing-wall column. Then a sequential design, optimization and control procedure for azeotropic/extractive dividing-wall column was presented on the basis of total annual cost (TAC) and effective control criteria. At last, several cases were utilized to demonstrate the benefit potentials of azeotropic/extractive dividing-wall column.

 (a)                                           (b)

 (c)                                           (d)

<>  <>Figure 1: Extractive dividing-wall column: (a) Integration scheme, (b) Equivalent scheme; Azeotropic dividing-wall column: (c) Integration scheme, (d) Equivalent scheme