SELECTING THE OPTIMUM SCHEME OF THE SEPARATION OF HYDROCARBON GASES BY DISTILLATION

Abstract

The heat costs in distillation columns were determined for the purpose of separating a four-component gas mixture in gas fractionators with various component selection sequences. A method for selecting the optimal scheme was developed. It is based on the concept of “internal energy saving” upon rectification. Internal energy saving means multiple steam operation on the plates of a distillation column, namely, its condensation on each plate with the release of the heat of condensation, which is used for the evaporation of the liquid entering the plate to obtain a new steam composition. It was shown that when binary and three-component mixtures are separated and products of equal purity are obtained, the heat costs are related to the internal energy saving. The calculation of the internal energy saving in a three-column system for the separation of a four-component mixture was carried out. The calculation confirms that, as the internal energy saving increases and, accordingly, the average internal energy saving in the system of columns increases, the total heat consumption is reduced. The results of calculating three separation schemes of the four-component mixture were compared using the program Aspen Plus with different methods for describing the phase equilibrium (NRTL, Peng-Robinson, Chao-Seader) was carried out. It was shown that the calculations with the use of Peng-Robinson and Chao-Seader methods match.

Keywords

• rectification
• gas fraction plant
• four-component mixture
• reflux ratio
• internal energy saving