More Operable Dividing Wall Columns

        Industrial application of dividing wall columns (DWCs) for multicomponent separation has gained significance in recent years. Of predominant interest have been the dividing wall versions of the n-component Fully Thermally Coupled (FTC) configurations because of their low energy requirements. However, in such DWCs, to derive maximum energy/cost savings, the vapor split at the bottom of a vertical partition is often critical. But, in practice, the vapor split at the bottom of a partition is left unregulated. To overcome this operational challenge, we suggest new attractive multicomponent DWCs in this work that allow independent control of the vapor flowrate in each partitioned zone. Interestingly, we show that all the new ternary DWCs have the same minimum heat duty requirements as the FTC configuration.