Conventional Distillation Processes

The operating range of structured packings differs considerably from that of tray columns. Both column types therefore have their specific appHcation range. In packed columns, the vapor load can be reduced to very low values but a certain Hquid load has to be maintained in order to ensure wetting of the packing elements. 

Liquid and vapor flow caimot be regarded independently from each other. The pressure drop in the column rises with increasing vapor load. This effect increases with increasing liquid load since void fraction of the packing for the vapor flow becomes smaller. 

The vapor load is usually expressed with help of the F-Factor  

Selechng an appropriate packing or tray is an ambitious task and should be considered with regard to energy and resource consumphon and the flexibility and ver-sahlity of the resulting process. Details about designing columns can be found in the literature (Stichlmair and Fair, 1998). 

---

One of the major problems facing our civilization is the availability of pure water. The largest source of water located near many cities is the ocean, but the ocean is filled with large amounts of dissolved salts. To recover water from the sea by any of the conventional distillation processes is to date extremely wasteful of energy and costly. However in... 

The conversion of saline water to fresh water by freezing is relatively new, but it is believed to have great potential. Theoretically, freezing has several inherent advan-iages over conventional distillation processes—for example, the lesser tendency toward... 

Process synthesis and design of these non-conventional distillation processes proceed in two steps. The first step—process synthesis—is the selection of one or more candidate entrainers along with the computation of thermodynamic properties like residue curve maps that help assess many column features such as the adequate column configuration and the corresponding product cuts sequence. The second step—process design—involves the search for optimal values of batch distillation parameters such as the entrainer amount, reflux ratio, boiler duty and number of stages. The complexity of the second step depends on the solutions obtained at the previous level, because efficiency in azeotropic and extractive distillation is largely determined by the mixture thermodynamic properties that are closely linked to the nature of the entrainer. Hence, we have established a complete set of rules for the selection of feasible entrainers for the separation of non ideal mixtures... 

Many separations which would be difficult to achieve by conventional distillation processes may be effected by a distillation process in which a solvent is introduced which reacts chemically with one or more of the components to be separated. Three methods are presented for solving problems of this type. In Sec. 8-1, the 0 method of convergence is applied to conventional and complex distillation columns. In Sec. 8-2, the 2N Newton-Raphson method is applied to absorbers and distillation columns in which one or more chemical reactions occur per stage. The first two methods are recommended for mixtures which do not deviate too widely from ideal solutions. For mixtures which form highly nonideal solutions and one or more chemical reactions occur per stage, a formulation of the Almost Band Algorithm such as the one presented in Sec. 8-3 is recommended. 

As an example, the separation of a butene/methanol/MTBE system is investigated. Methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE) is the desired product, and hence needs to be efficiently recovered from a reactor output. Difficulty arises when separating such a mixture with conventional distillation processes, because of the binary azeotropes that exist between methanol and MTBE, as well as between methanol and butene. The driving force for separation in membrane processes differs from that in distillation, thus a membrane process will not exhibit the same azeotropic behavior. Thus, the limitations on distillation processes can be overcome by using a membrane unit. 

The inlet stream is supplied as a saturated liquid at 22.8 bar pressure the mole fraction of C3 in the top product is specified as 0.97. The column has 32 real trays with a total eondensor and a kettle reboiler. The operating specifications are reflux ratio and boilup ratio with the amount of 2.64 and 4, respectively, temperature and pressure of the main streams of the process are shown in table 1, for the case of the conventional column. Table 1. Conditions of the main streams of the conventional distillation process... 

Extractive distillation can be generally used to separate close boiling liquids or azeotropes, which cannot be separated through conventional distillation process. A solvent is introduced into the distillation column to alter the relative volatility of the feed components, and to avoid the formation of azeotropes. The extracted less volatile components leave from the bottom, whereas more volatile components come out as top products in pure form. Extractive distillation can replace conventional distillation or extraction processes resulting in improved separations, reduced capital investment and energy consumption. Industrially, extractive distillation can be implemented for binary separations resolving the close boiling mixtures, namely m-xylene/ o-xylene, methyl-cyclohexane/toluene, propylene/propane, 1-butane/1,3-butadiene, and azeotropic mixtures such as iso propylether/acetone, ethyl acetate/ethanol/water, MTBE/ethanol, etc. 

As described above, the water vapor permeability in the polyimide is much larger than other gases. This property of the polyimide makes it possible to dehydrate organic compounds with the polyimide membrane module. Compared to a conventional distillation process. 

The scope for integrating conventional distillation columns into an overall process is often limited. Practical constraints often prevent integration of columns with the rest of the process. If the column cannot be integrated with the rest of the process, or if the potential for integration is limited by the heat flows in the background process, then attention must be turned back to the distillation operation itself and complex arrangements considered. 

Separation of Fatty Acids. Tall oil is a by-product of the pulp and paper manufacturiag process and contains a spectmm of fatty acids, such as palmitic, stearic, oleic, and linoleic acids, and rosia acids, such as abietic acid. The conventional refining process to recover these fatty acids iavolves iatensive distillation under vacuum. This process does not yield high purity fatty acids, and moreover, a significant degradation of fatty acids occurs because of the high process temperatures. These fatty and rosia acids can be separated usiag a UOP Sorbex process (93—99) (Tables 8 and 9). 

The monomer recovery process may vary ia commercial practice. A less desirable sequence is to filter or centrifuge the slurry to recover the polymer and then pass the filtrate through a conventional distillation tower to recover the unreacted monomer. The need for monomer recovery may be minimized by usiag two-stage filtration with filtrate recycle after the first stage. Nonvolatile monomers, such as sodium styrene sulfonate, can be partially recovered ia this manner. This often makes process control more difficult because some reaction by-products can affect the rate of polymerization and often the composition may vary. When recycle is used it is often done to control discharges iato the environment rather than to reduce monomer losses. 

Propylene Dimer. The synthesis of isoprene from propjiene (109,110) is a three-step process. The propjiene is dimeri2ed to 2-methyl-1-pentene, which is then isomeri2ed to 2-methyl-2-pentene in the vapor phase over siUca alumina catalyst. The last step is the pyrolysis of 2-methyi-2-pentene in a cracking furnace in the presence of (NH 2 (111,112). Isoprene is recovered from the resulting mixture by conventional distillation. 

Novolak Resins. In a conventional novolak process, molten phenol is placed into the reactor, foHowed by a precise amount of acid catalyst. The formaldehyde solution is added at a temperature near 90°C and a formaldehyde-to-phenol molar ratio of 0.75 1 to 0.85 1. For safety reasons, slow continuous or stepwise addition of formaldehyde is preferred over adding the entire charge at once. Reaction enthalpy has been reported to be above 80 kj /mol (19 kcal/mol) (29,30). The heat of reaction is removed by refluxing the water combined with the formaldehyde or by using a small amount of a volatile solvent such as toluene. Toluene and xylene are used for azeotropic distillation. FoHowing decantation, the toluene or xylene is returned to the reactor. 

The C4 stream from steam crackers, unlike its counterpart from a refinery, contains about 45% butadiene by weight. Steam crackers that process significant amounts of Hquid feedstocks have satellite faciUties to recover butadiene from the stream. Conventional distillation techniques are not feasible because the relative volatihty of the chemicals in this stream is very close. Butadiene and butylenes are separated by extractive distillation using polar solvents. 

Ordinary diffusion involves molecular mixing caused by the random motion of molecules. It is much more pronounced in gases and Hquids than in soHds. The effects of diffusion in fluids are also greatly affected by convection or turbulence. These phenomena are involved in mass-transfer processes, and therefore in separation processes (see Mass transfer Separation systems synthesis). In chemical engineering, the term diffusional unit operations normally refers to the separation processes in which mass is transferred from one phase to another, often across a fluid interface, and in which diffusion is considered to be the rate-controlling mechanism. Thus, the standard unit operations such as distillation (qv), drying (qv), and the sorption processes, as well as the less conventional separation processes, are usually classified under this heading (see Absorption Adsorption Adsorption, gas separation Adsorption, liquid separation). 

Only a fraction of the known azeotropes are sufficientiy pressure-sensitive for the conventional pressure-swing distillation process to work. However, the concept can be extended to pressure-insensitive azeotropes by adding a separating agent which forms a pressure-sensitive azeotrope and distillation boundary. Then the pressure is varied to shift the location of the distillation boundary (85). 

Heat management is another important consideration in the implementation of a reactive distillation process. Conventional... 

Solids may be processed continuously or semicontinuously by pumping slurries or by using lock hoppers. An example is the separation of insoluble polymers by floatation with a variable-density SCF. For liquid feeds, multistage separation may be achieved by continuous counter-current extraction, much like conventional liquid-hquid extraction. The final produces may be recovered from the extract phase by a depressurization, a temperature change, or by conventional distillation. 

For high vacuum distillation, Eckles et al. [150] suggest using a thin film or conventional batch process for industrial type installations however, there are many tray and packed colunms operating as low as 4 mm Hg, abs Eckles... 

Natural gas liquids may contain significant amounts of cyclohexane, a precursor for nylon 6 (Chapter 10). Recovery of cyclohexane from NGL hy conventional distillation is difficult and not economical because heptane isomers are also present which hoil at temperatures nearly identical to that of cyclohexane. An extractive distillation process has been recently developed by Phillips Petroleum Co. to separate cyclohexane. ... 

The conventional process consists of a reactor followed by eight distillation columns, one liquid-liquid extractor and a decantor. The reactive distillation process consists of one column that produces high-purity methyl acetate that does not require additional purification and there is no need to recover unconverted reactant. The reactive distillation process costs one fifth of the conventional process and consumes only one fifth of the energy. 

To produce a high purity product two distillation columns are operated in series. The overhead stream from the first column is the feed to the second column. The overhead from the second column is the purified product. Both columns are conventional distillation columns fitted with reboilers and total condensers. The bottom products are passed to other processing units, which do not form part of this problem. The feed to the first column passes through a preheater. The condensate from the second column is passed through a product cooler. The duty for each stream is summarised below ... 

---