Reduce Energy Demands in Industrial Distillation Trains through the Use of Thermal Links

In this paper the retrofit of five conventional distillation trains for the separation of quaternary mixtures of hydrocarbons for feed compositions with high or low content of intermediate components is presented. The retrofit only requires the introduction of liquid or vapour recycle streams between the conventional distillation columns. Each recycle stream removes one condenser or one reboiler. The introduction of thermal links can lower the energy consumption up to 40% in contrast to conventional distillation trains widely used in the industry. This efficiency in the use of energy is achieved because the recycle streams, introduced in the conventional distillation trains, reduce the remixing associated with higher energy consumption.

Keywords: Distillation trains, energy savings, thermal link, remixing