Thermal coupling links to liquid-only transfer streams: An enumeration method for new FTC dividing wall columns

摘要

Novel dividing wall columns (DWCs) can be obtained by converting thermal couplings to liquid-only transfer streams. Here, we develop a simple four-step method to generate a complete set of DWCs containing n-2 dividing walls, for a given n-component fully thermally coupled (FTC) distillation. Among the novel DWCs, some easy-to-operate DWCs possess the property that the vapor flow in every section of the DWC can be controlled during operation by means that are external to the column. We develop a simple method to enumerate all such easy-to-operate DWCs. We expect that the easy-to-operate DWCs can be operated close-to-optimality; leading to a successful industrial implementation of the n-component (n3) FTC distillation in the form of a DWC. As an illustration, we show figures of all easy-to-operate DWCs with two dividing walls for the four-component FTC distillation. (c) 2015 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 62: 1200-1211, 2016