Experimental evaluation of a modified fully thermally coupled distillation column

Abstract

A modified fully thermally coupled distillation column replacing the conventional distillation system is introduced, and its performance is experimentally evaluated for the stable operation of the column. The existing distillation system is modified to an energy-efficient distillation column for the reduction of investment cost and energy requirement. The experiment is conducted for the separation of methanol, ethanol and n-propanol mixture using a 4-in sieve tray column. The temperatures at seven different locations of the column are measured to monitor the column operation, and the measurements indicate that the column is stably operable. The stable operation proves that neither compressor nor pump is necessary for the vapor or liquid flow between tray sections. The experimental result is compared with that of the HYSYS simulation to show how satisfactory the separation is. The modeling of temperature variation provides a successful prediction of the temperature variation.