Distillation operations became a major concern within sustainability challenge, which it becomes a primary target of energy saving efforts in industrially developed countries. However, there is still one problem, which is how do we improve the energy efficiency of the existing distillation columns systems by considering the sustainability criteria without having major modifications. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to present new improvement of existing methodology by including a sustainability analysis to design an optimal sequence of energy efficient distillation columns. Accordingly, the methodology is divided into four hierarchical sequential stages: i) existing sequence sustainability analysis, ii) optimal sequence determination, iii) optimal sequence sustainability analysis, and iv) sustainability comparison and design modification. The capability of this methodology is tested in designing an optimal sustainable energy efficient distillation columns sequence of aromatics separation unit using a simple and reliable short-cut method within Aspen HYSYS® simulation environment. The energy and sustainability analysis is performed and shows that the optimal sequence determined by the driving force method has better energy reduction with total of 6.78% energy savings and 0.16% sustainability reduction compared to existing sequence with. In addition, the economic analysis shows that the return of investment of 3.10 with payback period of 4 months. It can be concluded that, the sequence determined by the driving force method is not only capable in reducing energy consumption, but also has better sustainability index for aromatic separation unit.
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