Abstract
Although heterogeneous azeotropic dividing-wall distillation columns (HADWDCs) can achieve considerable reductions in capital investment and operating cost as compared to conventional heterogeneous azeotropic distillation systems, their steady-state performance is likely to be greatly enhanced by the application of vapor recompression heat pump (VRHP) technology owing to their unique process configuration of one top condenser and two bottom reboilers and favorable steady-state behavior of relatively small top-to-bottom temperature elevations. In the current work, the feasibility and effectiveness of reinforcing the HADWDC with the VRHP (HADWDC-VRHP) are examined. A systematic procedure is developed to effectively determine the optimum combination of the VRHP and the HADWDC in order to minimize the total annual cost. Two example systems for the separation of isopropyl alcohol and water and pyridine and water with cyclohexane and toluene as entrainers, respectively, are studied to evaluate the steady-state ...
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