Distillation side stream

Several descriptions have been pubUshed of the continuous tar stills used in the CIS (9—11). These appear to be of the single-pass, atmospheric-pressure type, but are noteworthy in three respects the stills do not employ heat exchange and they incorporate a column having a bubble-cap fractionating section and a baffled enrichment section instead of the simple baffled-pitch flash chamber used in other designs. Both this column and the fractionation column, from which light oil and water overhead distillates, carboHc and naphthalene oil side streams, and a wash oil-base product are taken, are equipped with reboilers. 

The simplest unit employing vacuum fractionation is that designed by Canadian Badger for Dominion Tar and Chemical Company (now Rttgers VFT Inc.) at Hamilton, Ontario (13). In this plant, the tar is dehydrated in the usual manner by heat exchange and injection into a dehydrator. The dry tar is then heated under pressure in an oil-fired hehcal-tube heater and injected directly into the vacuum fractionating column from which a benzole fraction, overhead fraction, various oil fractions as side streams, and a pitch base product are taken. Some alterations were made to the plant in 1991, which allows some pitch properties to be controlled because pitch is the only product the distillate oils are used as fuel. 

The number of columns ia a multicomponent train can be reduced from the N — 1 relationship if side-stream draw-offs are used for some of the component cuts. The feasibiUty of multicomponent separation by such draw-offs depends on side-stream purity requirements, feed compositions, and equihbrium relationships. In most cases, side-stream draw-off distillations are economically feasible only if component specifications for the side-stream are not tight. If a single component is to be recovered ia an essentially pure state from a mixture containing both lower and higher boiling components, a... 

Example 4 Calculation of the BP Method Use the BP method with the SRK eqiiation-of-state for K values and enthalpy departures to compute stage temperatures, interstage vapor and hqiiid flow rates and compositions, and rehoiler and condenser duties for the light-hydrocarhon distdlation-coliimn specifications shown in Fig. 13-51 with feed at 260 psia. The specifications are selected to obtain three products, a vapor distillate rich in Cri and C3, a vapor side-stream rich in n-C4, and a bottoms rich in n-C and n-Cg. 

This, method for multicomponent distillation involving more than one feed and more than one side stream requires a reliable minimum reflux. 

After leaving the reactor the reaction mixture is passed to a settling tank where the denser HF is deposited in the lower phase. The organic phase is mixed gently with HF the HF phase contains tar components and traces of benzene. From the HF phase a side stream is refined. This side stream is heated in a preheater, partially vaporized, and separated into two components in a distillation column HF and benzene are distilled over the top while tar components are taken away at bottom. The top product is condensed, cooled, and collected in a settle tank. The bottom product is neutralized using potassium... 

The state variables are the minimal set of dependent variables that are needed in order to describe fully the state of the system. The output vector represents normally a subset of the state variables or combinations of them that are measured. For example, if we consider the dynamics of a distillation column, in order to describe the condition of the column at any point in time we need to know the prevailing temperature and concentrations at each tray (the state variables). On the other hand, typically very few variables are measured, e.g., the concentration at the top and bottom of the column, the temperature in a few trays and in some occasions the concentrations at a particular tray where a side stream is taken. In other words, for this case the observation matrix C will have zeros everywhere except in very few locations where there will be 1 s indicating which state variables are being measured. 

A distillation column divides the feed stream components between the top and bottom streams, and any side streams. The product compositions are often known they may be specified, or fixed by process constraints, such as product specifications, effluent limits or an azeotropic composition. For a particular stream, 5 , the split-fraction coefficient is given by ... 

The primary objective of distillation column control is to maintain the specified composition of the top and bottom products, and any side streams correcting for the effects of disturbances in ... 

The compositions are controlled by regulating reflux flow and boil-up. The column overall material balance must also be controlled distillation columns have little surge capacity (hold-up) and the flow of distillate and bottom product (and side-streams) must match the feed flows. 

Figure 11.1. Distillation column (a) Basic column (b) Multiple feeds and side streams...

As was mentioned in Section 11.2, in multicomponent distillations it is not possible to obtain more than one pure component, one sharp separation, in a single column. If a multicomponent feed is to be split into two or more virtually pure products, several columns will be needed. Impure products can be taken off as side streams and the removal of a side stream from a stage where a minor component is concentrated will reduce the concentration of that component in the main product. 

Rose et al. (1958) and Hanson and Sommerville (1963) have applied relaxation methods to the solution of the unsteady-state equations to obtain the steady-state values. The application of this method to the design of multistage columns is described by Hanson and Sommerville (1963). They give a program listing and worked examples for a distillation column with side-streams, and for a reboiled absorber. 

A mixture of water and ethyl alcohol containing 0.16 mole fraction alcohol is continuously distilled in a plate fractionating column to give a product containing 0.77 mole fraction alcohol and a waste of 0.02 mole fraction alcohol. It is proposed to withdraw 25 per cent of the alcohol in the entering stream as a side stream containing 0.50 mole fraction of alcohol. 

Whether or not a variable is independent may be more difficult to determine in other cases. For example, a distillation column with a side stripper is shown in Fig. 1. The side stripper in Fig. 1(a) has a reboiler and that in Figure 1 (b) is stripped with steam. Under the program, the liquid side stream which feeds the side stripper must be set. Also, in the column arrangement of Fig. 1(b) the amount and enthalpy of the steam fed must be set, since it constitutes an external feed. For illustration, we assume that the bottom product from the reboiler of the main column has... 

Figure 2 (c) shows a distillation column with four degrees of freedom provided by the two reboilers, the condenser, and the liquid side stream from the main column. Many possibilities of limits exist, depending on what variables have been set first. One example might be taken in which the liquid side stream was set last. The limits on the amount of this stream would then be, as a lower limit, the amount of bottom product (or reboiler vapor) in the side stripper and, as an upper limit, the total amount of liquid flow off the stage from which the stream was drawn. (The latter of these limits would not be easy to determine.)... 

Separation of the oxide and the organic byproducts is accomplished by distillation in two towers. Feed from the saponifier contains oxide, aldehyde, dichloride, and water. In the first tower, oxide and aldehyde go overhead together with only small amounts of the other substances the dichloride and water go to the bottom and also contain small amounts of contaminants. Two phases will form in the lower section of this tower this is taken off as a partial side stream and separated into a dichloride phase which is sent to storage and a water phase which is sent to the saponifier as recycle near the top of that vessel. The bottoms are a waste product. Tower pressure is 20 psig. Live steam provides heat at the bottom of this column. 

Figure 3.13. Crude oil vacuum tower. Pumparound reflux is provided at three lower positions as well as at the top, with the object of optimizing the diameter of the tower. Cooling of the side streams is part of the heat recovery system of the entire crude oil distillation plant. The cooling water and the steam for stripping and to the vacuum ejector are on hand control.

In (iv), a distillation column may have several feeds and several products which may include side streams. 

---