Potential energy savings in ideal heat-integrated distillation column

An ideal Heat-Integrated Distillation Column (HIDiC), having no reboiler and no condenser, is constructed in such a manner that its rectifying and stripping sections are separated, while connected through a compressor and a throttling valve. Its manipulation is completed by exchanging heat between the two sections. The ideal HIDiC is expected to be more efficient than conventional columns, at the expense of some energy to raise the pressure of the rectifying section. In this paper, it is shown by thermodynamical consideration that the ideal HIDiC has a high potential of texergy loss reduction in the operation compared with conventional columns. The effects of feed and distillate composition, and relative volatility on energy saving characteristics are simulated in this paper, and the possibility of energy saving is found for feed compositions. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.