New Conceptual Design Methodology for a Concentric Heat Integrated Distillation Column (HIDiC)

Abstract

The concept of Heat Integrated Distillation column (HIDiC) was introduced by Mah et al. (1977) to improve the energy efficiency of distillation processes. The aim of this study is to propose a new conceptual design methodology for concentric HIDiC. Our methodology is based on simulation of the process performed on ProsimPlusTM and found the optimised heat exchange between the two parts of the process. The optimised heat exchange is characterized by the maximum of energy transmissible between the two sections, before the column does not work properly and the simulation does not run. This paper presents the three different steps to achieve the design of the concentric HIDiC for chosen operating conditions. The design procedure and the simulation are carried out for the separation of a binary mixture cyclohexane and n-heptane. In addition to presenting the design results, the energy gain was verified compared to the simulation of a classical distillation column.