Simulation of Chlorobenzene Distillation Using Dividing Wall Column

In this paper, application of dividing wall column (DWC) to chlorobenzene distillation was studied. Simulation using Aspen plus software was done to compare the traditional two tower process with new process based on DWC. The results show that, with the same feed parameters, the DWC processes can achieve identical separation effect as the two tower process with an energy saving of 21%, and capital investment and space saving can also be gained. In addition, only a reboiler is need in DWC process, so residence time of chlorobenzene, polychlorobenzene, etc inside high temperature region can be reduced, so can to avoid heat decomposition of these thermosensitive substances to a great extent.