Advances on modeling and simulation of alcoholic distillation. Part 2: Process simulation

Several studies developed by the authors on the application of process simulators to the distillation processes of alcoholic mixtures are analyzed and discussed in this second part of the series on advances on modeling and simulation of alcoholic distillation. Three study cases are presented and discussed to show the usefulness of simulation packages, and in particular of ChemCAD: (i) production of whisky in a sequence of double batch distillation; (ii) production of brandy in a single continuous column; and (iii) production of neutral spirits in a sequence of multiple columns (concentrator, light component separator, and rectification column). In all cases the selection of the thermodynamic models considered previous studies as discussed in Part 1 of the series in which the NRTL model was recommended for phase equilibrium modeling. Applications of two industrial and pilot plant cases are presented, so the validity of the simulations and the appropriateness of the thermodynamic and process simulation studies presented in this series of papers. The main conclusion of the study is that simulators can play an important role in understanding alcoholic distillation processes, in optimizing resources and in making distillation of wine and musts a more efficient process. (C) 2012 The Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.