A hybrid technology combining heat pump and thermally coupled distillation sequence for retrofit and debottlenecking

Increasing the capacity of an existing distillation process has been a major focus of the chemical process industry. On the other hand, entrainment flooding can occur as a result, which can create a bottleneck in the distillation process. This paper reports the results of a techno-economic feasibility study to debottleneck the distillation column using a proposed hybrid process combining a heat pump and thermally coupled distillation sequence. Fractional utilization of the area was used to identify flooding problems in the column as well as how much area is available for vapor flow on an existing stage. A heat pump aided thermally coupled distillation sequence (HPTCDS) was designed and optimized using a response surface methodology. Two cases were examined to test the proposed sequence. The results showed that the proposed sequence can achieve significant energy savings and remove the bottleneck problem.

[1]  Gade Pandu Rangaiah,et al.  A Simplified Procedure for Quick Design of Dividing-Wall Columns for Industrial Applications , 2009 .

[2]  Mohammad Ali Moosavian,et al.  Fractional factorial design for the optimization of supercritical carbon dioxide extraction of La3+, Ce3+ and Sm3+ ions from a solid matrix using bis(2,4,4-trimethylpentyl)dithiophosphinic acid + tributylphosphate , 2011 .

[3]  Margaret J. Robertson,et al.  Design and Analysis of Experiments , 2006, Handbook of statistics.

[4]  Moonyong Lee,et al.  Design and optimization of a dividing wall column by factorial design , 2012, Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering.

[5]  Megan Jobson,et al.  Shortcut Models for Retrofit Design of Distillation Columns , 2003 .

[6]  Moonyong Lee,et al.  Optimal retrofit design of extractive distillation to energy efficient thermally coupled distillation scheme , 2013 .

[7]  Benjamin Engel,et al.  Analysis Synthesis And Design Of Chemical Processes , 2016 .

[8]  Gade Pandu Rangaiah,et al.  Improving energy efficiency of dividing-wall columns using heat pumps, Organic Rankine Cycle and Kalina Cycle , 2014 .

[9]  Carlos A. Infante Ferreira,et al.  Towards energy efficient distillation technologies – Making the right choice , 2012 .

[10]  Nguyen Van Duc Long,et al.  Design and optimization of a dividing wall column for debottlenecking of the acetic acid purification process , 2010 .

[11]  Karen A. F. Copeland.  Design and Analysis of Experiments, 5th Ed. , 2001 .

[12]  Nguyen Van Duc Long,et al.  Improved energy efficiency in debottlenecking using a fully thermally coupled distillation column , 2011 .

[13]  Megan Jobson,et al.  Retrofit Design for Increasing the Processing Capacity of Distillation Columns: 2. Proposing and Evaluating Design Options , 2004 .

[14]  Moonyong Lee,et al.  Dividing wall column structure design using response surface methodology , 2012, Comput. Chem. Eng..

[15]  B. Suphanit,et al.  Exergy loss analysis of heat transfer across the wall of the dividing-wall distillation column , 2007 .

[16]  Ignacio E. Grossmann,et al.  Systematic Methods of Chemical Process Design , 1997 .

[17]  Gade Pandu Rangaiah,et al.  Retrofitting conventional column systems to dividing-Wall Columns , 2009 .

[18]  G. Box,et al.  On the Experimental Attainment of Optimum Conditions , 1951 .

[19]  Moonyong Lee,et al.  Design and optimization of heat integrated dividing wall columns for improved debutanizing and deisobutanizing fractionation of NGL , 2012, Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering.

[20]  Nguyen Van Duc Long,et al.  Optimal retrofit of a side stream column to a dividing wall column for energy efficiency maximization , 2013 .

[21]  Anton A. Kiss,et al.  Innovative dimethyl ether synthesis in a reactive dividing-wall column , 2012, Comput. Chem. Eng..

[22]  K. A. Amminudin,et al.  Design and Optimization of Fully Thermally Coupled Distillation Columns: Part 2: Application of Dividing Wall Columns in Retrofit , 2001 .

[23]  Megan Jobson,et al.  Retrofit Design for Increasing the Processing Capacity of Distillation Columns: 1. A Hydraulic Performance Indicator , 2004 .

[24]  Nguyen Van Duc Long,et al.  A novel NGL (natural gas liquid) recovery process based on self-heat recuperation , 2013 .

[25]  Anton A. Kiss,et al.  Innovative single step bioethanol dehydration in an extractive dividing-wall column , 2012 .