New Design Method for Fully Thermally Coupled Distillation Column Using Group and Approximate Methods

A new design method for determining the structure of a fully thermally coupled distillation column is proposed. The method involves approximate group method and the Fenske equation. To design the prefractionator, an approximate calculation procedure that relates compositions of multicomponent vapor and liquid streams is developed to formulate the expressions used to compute the number of stages. To investigate the usability and performance of this design method, different feed mixtures are tried. The results indicate that the method works well for a variety of process conditions; the results show that the structure design from group method leads to a process similar to a feasible actual process. The structure design results and operating conditions for the whole column system enable the examination of the optimal internal flows and their effects on the structure design equations. The results show that the proposed design method provides good initial values for rigorous simulation.