Abstract
Conventional distillation is the most used unit operation to separate zeotropic mixtures. However, it is combined other unit operations to separate azeotropic mixtures. This work proposes a synthesis and intensification framework to obtain hybrid membrane distillation process structures. The synthesis problem was represented by a low aggregation superstructure comprised of functional modules. Then, the superstructure was reformulated as a Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) problem to derive the optimal structure. The synthesis problem does not consider any pre-established process structure or connectivity; therefore, the optimal solution must be interpreted, simulated, and validated to generate a known process structure. Finally, the validated structure was post-optimized to fine-tune the detailed design of the process structure. The presented framework was applied to separating an ethanol/water mixture. The obtained solutions attained high energy and cost savings compared to the typical pressure swing and extractive distillation.
Published Version
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