Application of Energy-Efficient Distillation System in Ethanol Process

A new ethanol dehydration process utilizing a thermally coupled distillation column is proposed to reduce the energy requirement of the existing dehydration processes. An entrainer of benzene is used in the proposed system having the column profile similar to the equilibrium composition profile for the maximum distillation column efficiency, and the feed composition is arranged to close to the boundary of different distillation regions. It is found that the proposed distillation system gives some 18% of energy saving over the existing process. In addition, design guidelines are suggested for other azeotropic distillation process.