Sustainable Energy & Chemical Engineering

Sustainable Energy & Chemical Engineering

A packed distillation column performance simulation by modified equilibrium stage model based on multicomponent packing efficiencies

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Hadi Poortalari 1
Farshad Varaminian 2
Javad Karimi Sabet 3
1 Department of Chemical Engineering, School of Engineering, Damghan University, Damghan, Iran
2 Faculty of Chemical, Petroleum and Gas Engineering, Semnan University, Semnan, Iran
3 Material and Nuclear Fuel Research School (MNFRS), Nuclear Science and Technology Research Institute, Tehran
10.22075/jpetk.2024.26680.1009
Abstract
In this work, a modified equilibrium approach based on calculation of multicomponent efficiencies is implemented for packed columns simulation. In this modified approach, distillation process non-idealities due to interphase mass transfer are considered while the algorithm remains simple and efficient. The whole method consists of a segment wise procedure which is performed iteratively in a computational MATLAB code to simulate an experimental packed distillation column with structured packings. In each iteration, the component efficiencies are determined to consider mass transfer effects through the packed segments. According to obtained profiles for temperature and component compositions, good agreement is observed between reported experimental data and simulation results, so that the average deviations are about 0.5% and 19% for temperature and compositions, respectively. This confirms that the presented modified equilibrium model can properly predict the performance of multicomponent distillation in the packed columns and therefore it can be employed as a valid and reliable tool for design and simulation of real distillation towers.

Highlights

 

 

Keywords
Packed distillation column
Structured packing
Modified equilibrium model
Multicomponent packing efficiency