New intensified distillation systems for quaternary Petlyuk configuration

Abstract While dividing-wall column for ternary Petlyuk configuration has received wide applications in industries, the dividing-wall column for quaternary Petlyuk configuration has not reached the same applications due to its complexity in both design and control. In this work, the synthesis on the alternative intensified distillation systems than Petlyuk configuration for four-component distillation was investigated. First, the simple column configuration for the separation sequence of Petlyuk configuration is presented. Then four strategies are introduced to change the structure of the simple column configuration in terms of both condensers/reboilers and column sections. These strategies can be used to synthesize the alternative intensified configurations from the simple column configuration of the separation sequence. The objective of this work is to give the synthesis method to generate the new intensified distillation systems for quaternary Petlyuk configuration. In total, five new alternative intensified systems are obtained each with only two columns. The alternative intensified systems are amenable to be easier in both design and control due to the simplicity in the structures. The synthesis method together with the new generated alternative configurations are presented in this work. The numerical design and optimization, as well as dynamics and control of these new alternative configurations are underway.