Simulation of Distillation of a Large Relative Volatility Mixture

Abstract

In this paper, difficulties relating to the simulation of distillation columns for separating mixtures containing components with large relative volatility between the light and heavy key components are discussed. The system used for the study is ethylene o-xylene mixture. The relative volatility is not only large but its change with temperature is also large. This makes the system model equations highly non-linear. Great difficulty is met to obtain converged solution using packages like Hysis and Pro/II. Attempts have been made to obtain optimum design and a method suggested to enhanced convergence.