Abstract
ABSTRACTDilute acetic acid is obtained primarily from fermentation and synthesis processes and cannot be produced by simple distillation due to relatively low volatility of acetic acid compared to water. Instead, an azeotropic distillation is applied to increase the concentration of dilute acetic acid. When acetic acid is extracted from a dilute aqueous solution using a solvent mixture of ester and alcohol, its recovery requires an energy-intensive azeotropic distillation. In the water stripping process that follows azeotropic distillation, two distillation columns handle the acetic acid and water mixture in similar composition. Therefore, the two columns can be combined as a side stripper connected to the azeotropic distillation column. The energy-saving effect is examined with the HYSYS (Aspentech Corporation) evaluation of the process. Compared to the conventional process, the modified process suggests 39% reduction in heating duty and 24% coolant savings. The economic analysis shows 32% decrease in investment and 36% utility savings. Based on heat utilization analysis, the thermodynamic efficiency is enhanced by 11%.
Published Version
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